Next Generation Travel Back In Time
by brahdley jims
Summary: It's another time travel fic! With an actual plot line. When James, Albus, Lily, Rose, Hugo and Scorpius are sent back in time to 1995, they discover a lot more than they bargained for. What kind of trouble will an ancient curse bring our time travellers?
1. CRASH!

**AN: I KNOW, I KNOW, I should be updating my other two stories which haven't been updated since God knows when. But I've had massive writers block for both of them and all my ideas were focused on this idea, so I've been writing this for a while. I've always wanted to do one of these time travel fics, and I can never find one that is actually FINISHED. This is why I promise you, and swear it both on my life and my obsession with Harry Potter, that this _will be finished._ You have my word. If I get slow in updating, you have the right to cyber-kick me, or send death threats. I've tried to make this different from all the other time travel fics out there, but you'll find out how it's different in the next chapter. No time turner getting smashed to speak of in this fic, yay! Read, enjoy, and most importantly... review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, Draco and Ron would be _mine. _Yes, both of them.**

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**1**

**CRASH!**

The kitchen of Number 12, Grimmauld Place, was chaos.

'HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF!' Fred, George and Ginny were chanting, doing a kind of dance that involved leaping around a lot.

'FRED, GEORGE, GINNY, SHUT UP!' Molly Weasley shrieked, her cheeks flushed with combined annoyance and happiness. Harry was surrounded by people congratulating him, shaking his hand, clapping him on the back and beaming at him. Ron and Hermione were ecstatic, and Remus was smiling. Sirius put on a grin for his godson, but a flash of regret lay behind the dark eyes shining with happiness. Arthur had just Apparated away to deal with a regurgitating toilet, after promising to let all the other Order members know Harry had got off.

'We're going to have to have a nice big dinner…' Molly said suddenly to herself, bustling around the kitchen as she gave up on trying to shut her children up. 'Invite everyone… yes, that's what we'll do…'

'Mrs Weasley, you don't have to do anything,' Harry insisted, as Ron's eyes lit up at the prospect of food.

'Oh, it's no problem, dear! We should celebrate this. Shouldn't we, Sirius?' This last was said a little more fiercely, as Mrs Weasley gave Sirius a hard look.

'What?' Sirius appeared to have been in his own world, the smile from earlier having slipped off his face. 'Yeah, of course, Harry. It's great.' Forcing a smile on his handsome face, Sirius made to slip away when Fred, George and Ginny's chant started up again, even louder now. But he got no further than the threshold of the kitchen door when –

CRASH!

Everything fell silent as everyone's heads whipped round to the doorway. Fred, George and Ginny's arms were half up in the air, having been cut off in mid-leap, while everyone else was reaching for their wands. Sirius peered into the hallway where the huge crash had come from, and Bill and Remus came to stand behind him, wands pointed in the direction of the noise. Everyone else stood up and crowded in behind them, peering to see through the dark hallway.

There was a moment's silence. Then –

'Hugo, get your arse out of my face!'

'It's not my fault you landed in that awkward position, my elbow's trapped under Lily's face –'

'Scorpius, you're sitting on me!'

'And what's so wrong with that, I thought you'd quite enjoy it –'

'Scorpius!'

'Sorry, Rose – I can't move because of Albus –'

'Well, I'm so sorry if I don't want to move FURTHER into Hugo's backside –'

'Albus! That sounded so wrong!'

'Hugo, move your arse so Al can get up!'

'I can't, Lily's trapped my elbow –'

'Oh, sorry – wait, Rose is lying on my legs –'

The people watching from the kitchen were too stunned to say anything, staring at the off scene unfolding in front of their eyes.

'Well, I can't move, Lily, because of Scorpius!'

'I told you, I can't – look, someone's going to have to move.'

'I can't.'

'Neither can I!'

'Yes you can, Albus!'

'What about you, Rose?'

'Don't start on me, I've got about three boys lying on top of me!'

'Please never say that again, Rose.'

'Guys – please, move, you're crushing me –' This new voice came from a boy on the bottom of the pile, and his voice made it sound like he was suffocating.

'Nobody cares, James!' chorused everyone else tangled in the pile.

'I do, I'm going to die here! Jesus, Rose, what the hell did you eat for breakfast? Concrete?'

SMACK.

'I take it back, I'm sorry…! Ow, Rose, why'd'you have to hit me there of all places?'

'It was the only place I could reach, be glad it wasn't your face.'

'Rose, let's try not to get too violent too soon.'

'Guys, we have an audience.'

Everyone fell silent as six heads poked up from the pile to stare at the several people staring right back at them.

'Who are you, and how did you get in here?' Bill demanded, wand directed straight at the intruders.

'We could explain, if these idiots got off me,' the girl they thought was called Rose said irritably.

'We can't move, Rose!' three voices snapped back.

'Oooh, wait! I think I'm free!' the other female voice exclaimed, yanking her legs up to her chest and rolling off the pile.

'Ouch, Lily, my head!' the girl called Rose groaned as her head fell violently back.

'Oh, sorry,' the girl called Lily apologised as she brushed herself off, straightened her top and beamed at the crowd in the kitchen doorway, three of whom were pointing their wands at her.

Gradually, the rest of the group disentangled themselves (after a lot of cursing and cries of pain) and stood up, looking at the group in the kitchen with looks of apprehension and dawning comprehension. There were two girls, and four boys. The girl called Rose had curly red hair just past her shoulders, brown eyes and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. The boy who stood on the left of her had unruly black hair, emerald green eyes and glasses – the exact replica of Harry, minus the lightning scar. The boy on Rose's right was very pale, with messed up blonde hair and grey-blue eyes. He looked more scared than the rest of them, and had good reason to be. The girl called Lily had perfectly straight hair, though it was more auburn than red, and brown eyes. She was the smallest of the group, and stood next to a taller boy with the same unruly black hair as the first boy, but with hazel eyes and no glasses. He was still grumbling about nearly being squashed to death. The last boy was as tall as the hazel-eyed boy, though he looked younger, with curly brown hair and blue eyes and freckles, like Rose.

There was a few moments of silence, each group looking the other up and down, until the girl named Rose said brightly, 'Hello!'

'Who are you and how did you get in here?' Bill repeated, never taking his eyes off the group of teenagers.

'It's a long story,' the Harry-replica sighed – and then wished he hadn't.

'It's not a long story at all!' Rose exclaimed shrilly. 'It was all James' fault!'

'No, it was not!' the hazel-eyed boy called James shouted back. 'Why is everything my fault? If anything, it was your fault for being in the way –'

'You shouldn't have been tearing around the house in the first place!' Rose retorted. The two were now facing each other and glaring at each other.

'Shut up!' the Harry-replica yelled. The two fell silent, shooting each other dirty looks.

'Are you Death Eaters?' Remus asked loudly.

'If we were, would we be arguing like this?' the blonde boy drawled, raising an eyebrow.

'I wasn't bickering,' the girl named Lily muttered.

'Who are you then?' Sirius demanded.

'Uh –' the brown-haired boy began, then turned to Rose – as did the rest of their group.

She rolled her eyes. 'Well, this is going to be hard to explain.'

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**AN: Bit of a short chapter to start off with - but then, it is the first chapter. I said above I was going to finish this, and I am - but TRUST ME, I update A LOT quicker when I get REVIEWS. They keep me going. Both praise and constructive criticism is welcome (but no flames, thank you very much). Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!**


	2. And You Are?

**AN: Wow, guys! I didn't expect so much buzz for the first chapter! 103 hits since I uploaded this two days ago, that's a record for me... wait, is that sad? xD A lot of people added this to their alerts/favourites as well, which made me smile :) and thank you so much to those who reviewed! I love coming home from school and seeing reviews from people wanting to read more of this fanfiction. They give me the warm fuzzies inside :P Though I'd really, really appreciate if everyone who alerted/favourited this last chapter could leave a review, telling me why they did so. That would be lovely ^^ So this chapter is the chapter in which they all introduce themselves... not so exciting, but necessary. Chapter 3 is when we start getting into the story. Read, enjoy, and REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own... wish I did... **

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**2**

**And You Are?**

'So… you're definitely not Death Eaters?' Sirius asked, just for confirmation.

'No, we're six bloody teenagers from the future!' Lily snapped – then her hand flew to her mouth. 'Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to say –'

'It's okay, Lily, we would've had to tell them anyway,' Rose reassured the younger girl. She turned to address the group of people in the present. 'We _are _from the future, and we're not Death Eaters.'

'Though we can't be certain with this one, given past events –' the boy called James said, jabbing a finger at the blonde boy, but shut up when the boy snarled, 'Watch it, Potter.' He cowered even further under Rose and the Harry-replica's glares.

'Wait. Potter?' Harry spoke up, stepping around Remus to see the teenagers properly. 'Did I hear you right?'

'Yeah,' James said proudly, puffing his chest out. 'Potters and proud!' Rose rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the back of the head.

'Woah,' Ron said, looking dazed. 'You're… Harry's kids!'

'Well done, Sherlock,' Ginny chuckled, and he scowled at her.

'So, some of you are Potters, but some of you obviously aren't,' Remus said, eyeing the blonde boy and the brown-haired boy in particular.

'God forbid,' Rose muttered jokingly, and she chuckled at the offended glare she got from the Harry-replica.

'The easiest way to do this is for us to just introduce ourselves,' the brown-haired boy said.

'Good idea, why doesn't the coolest person go first?' James grinned, stepping forward.

'Modest too,' Rose and Lily remarked, and everyone laughed despite their odd situation, except James who made a rude gesture at them. Rose responded with one of her own, and before James could come back Albus said warningly, 'You two.'

'As I was saying,' James began again, with Rose pulling faces at his back unknown to James and Albus not about to stop her, 'I'm James Sirius Potter, and –'

'_Sirius?_' a few people repeated, and Sirius turned to grin at his godson. He was honoured that Harry would name his own son after him, that he thought so highly of him.

'Why wouldn't I name him after you and my dad?' Harry smiled, inwardly praising himself for his good choice of names. 'You mean a lot to me, Sirius. You're the only family I've got left.'

Sirius nodded, still grinning widely. 'I appreciate it, Harry, I really do. Thank you.'

'And anyway, I'm in Gryffindor, like every good Potter should be,' James continued.

'James, just introduce yourself, no need for the side comments!' Lily cut in.

'Fine, fine! I'm a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and I'm about to go into my last year at Hogwarts.'

'So are we!' Fred and George called, and James grinned at them, instantly recognising them.

'I live up to my namesakes in every way and my favourite class is Transfiguration,' James said.

Sirius looked like Christmas had come early. 'Harry, you've managed to produce a carbon copy of James! He's bloody brilliant!' he exclaimed, then frowned. 'You are exactly like James, aren't you?'

'I just said I live up to my namesakes,' James grinned wickedly, and Sirius smiled widely again. 'I inherited the Marauder's Map from Dad.'

'And I got his Invisibility Cloak,' the Harry-replica said. 'I'm Albus Potter.'

'Full name, Al,' James tutted.

Albus sighed. 'My full name is… Albus Severus Potter.'

'You're joking?' Ron and the twins yelped loudly, at the same time Sirius turned to stare at Harry, wide-eyed and gobsmacked.

'You named your own son after that slimy git?' he said incredulously. 'No kid deserves that, Harry!'

'I don't know why I did it!' Harry protested, thoroughly bewildered himself as to why he would name his son after the Potions Master that had been nothing but nasty to him over the past four years.

'You've got a good reason, Dad,' Albus said quietly, and everyone turned to look at him once more. 'But I can't tell you what it is.'

Sirius' jaw didn't unclench.

'Anyway, I play Seeker, like Dad, and I'm about to start my sixth year at Hogwarts. I'm not as intense as Rose when it comes to homework and exams and stuff,' the girl in question scowled at him, 'but I do well in all my classes. My favourite class is Transfiguration.'

'Wait, you didn't tell us what house you were in,' Fred said.

'Oh, um…' Albus glanced at the other five teenagers. Rose gave him an encouraging smile, and Lily nodded her head. He took a deep breath. 'I'm in Slytherin.'

'No way,' the twins breathed. 'You're definitely a Potter?'

'Harry, what did you do to your kid?' Sirius said almost piteously. 'That's what happens when you give him the name of a dirty Slytherin git. It rubs off on him!'

'Sirius, really,' Mrs Weasley admonished, at the same time Albus and the blonde boy exclaimed, 'Hey!'

'There's nothing wrong with Slytherin,' Lily piped up, ever the peacemaker. 'We come from a different time, remember. Slytherin isn't as… erm, prejudiced as it used to be.'

'You're right,' Hermione said, and Albus looked relieved, though still a little miffed at Sirius. 'We shouldn't judge people based on their houses, especially not when things have obviously changed in the future.' She smiled at Lily. 'And you are?'

'Oh, Lily Luna Potter,' Lily told the group at large brightly. 'I'm the last of the Potters. I'm about to go into my fourth year at Hogwarts, and I'm in Hufflepuff. I play Chaser for the team. I got placed in Hufflepuff for a reason –'

'Which doesn't mean to say she can't be incredibly mean, especially when she's got Rose on her side,' James muttered, and both girls glared at him.

'As I was saying, my favourite class is Charms, but I do well in all my subjects,' Lily finished.

'OK, so that's you three, and Harry's your dad,' Hermione said, 'but who's your mother?'

All three siblings glanced at each other. James, as the oldest, made the decision and said quietly, 'It can't hurt, and we'll have to Obliviate them anyway.'

'Our mother is Ginevra Weasley,' Albus said.

There was a stunned silence. Then the four Weasley brothers turned to glare murderously at Harry, while Hermione beamed, Mrs Weasley let out a gasp of obvious delight and Sirius and Remus grinned at the pair in question, who'd turned bright red and were refusing to look at each other, or anybody else for that matter.

'You knocked up our sister –' Fred began.

'- three times?' George finished.

'I – uh –'

'Obviously,' James snickered.

Ginny, once she had recovered from her embarrassment and shock, had to struggle to keep her smile under control. She was going to marry Harry Potter! She was going to marry the boy she'd had a crush on since she was a little girl, the boy she'd liked ever since he rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets. And not only that, but she was going to have three children with him as well! Her smile faded, however, when she plucked up the courage to look at Harry.

He was looking stunned, his jaw open wide, still very red. He was obviously in disbelief about the whole thing… did he still think of her as 'Ron's little sister'? Would this change things between them?

'Moving on,' Rose said eventually, not liking the awkward silence this revelation had caused. 'I think the rest of us should introduce ourselves.'

'Good idea,' Bill nodded. 'You're Rose, right?'

'Yes. I'm Rose Nymphadora Weasley,' she said, and though there were a few raised eyebrows at this no one said anything. 'I'm in Gryffindor too, and I play Keeper for the team. I'm the same age as Al, about to go into my sixth year at Hogwarts, and my cousins are James, Al and Lily.'

'Ah, so your dad is one of my brothers?' Ginny questioned.

'My dad's Ron Weasley,' Rose smiled.

'Really?' Fred frowned.

'Who did Ronniekins trick into marrying him?' George asked perfectly seriously.

'I could ask you a similair thing,' Rose scowled at George. 'Actually, my mother is –'

'Hermione,' Mrs Weasley guessed, speaking more to herself than anybody else. She looked, if possible, even happier.

Nobody had failed to hear her. The shock clearly registered on everyone's faces.

'Nah,' George shook his head slowly, 'Hermione's a lot smarter than that.'

Rose glared at him. 'That's my parents you're talking about,' she spat venomously, and George looked truly terrified. Mrs Weasley and Ginny looked even more gleeful at this confirmation, though admittedly Ginny was more on the edge of laughter than tears of joy.

'And mine,' the brown-haired boy put in, narrowing his eyes at George. He was taller than the twins, despite being quite a bit younger, which made him more intimidating.

'We have a son?' Ron said weakly. Harry caught him before he fainted, though he did look ready to faint again at any moment. Like Hermione, Ron was beetroot red and in complete and utter shock – although there was a very small part of him, squashed by the embarrassment, which wanted to jump for joy around the kitchen like a lunatic.

'Yeah, I'm Hugo Arthur Weasley,' the brown-haired boy said. 'I'm a Keeper as well, but for Hufflepuff. I'm the same age as Lily, about to go into my fourth year at Hogwarts. My favourite class is Care of Magical Creatures, and I'm brilliant at chess.'

'Wait, so that makes you fourteen,' Sirius said, and Hugo nodded. 'Bloody hell, you're tall.'

'Have you forgotten who Daddy is?' Fred sniggered.

'I'm much more like Dad than Mum, unlike Rose,' Hugo continued, grinning at his older sister.

'And what's that supposed to mean?' she asked sharply.

'That you're a really scary mix of Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione,' Albus shivered, without thinking. He saw Rose's face, and his own expression turned to one of horror. 'Not that that's a bad thing, I, uh –'

'Actually, that is a bad thing,' the blonde boy said, obviously braver than Albus was when it came to Rose. 'Do you even know how terrifying you are when you're in a temper?'

'So last of all,' Remus cut in, before Rose could shout at him, which she was very obviously about to do, 'who are you?'

'My name is Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy,' the blonde boy said in one rushed breath.

'Malfoy?' Ron growled. 'What the hell are you doing here?'

'He's here because he's mine and Al's best friend,' Rose said quickly. She stepped slightly in front of Scorpius, as did Albus. 'If you've got a problem with that, tough.'

Ron didn't say anything, just glared at the three of them.

'Go on, dear,' Mrs Weasley smiled at Scorpius, always willing to give everyone a chance.

Scorpius gulped. 'Erm – yeah, I'm in Slytherin with – with Al and I play Chaser, and reserve Seeker. My favourite class is Potions. And before you say anything, I'm not like my father,' he added in a quieter voice.

'You look exactly like him,' Ron muttered angrily, but most of his anger was because of the fact his own daughter – _his daughter _– was best friends with the Malfoy spawn. He couldn't think of the boy in a nicer term.

'So now we've cleared up who you are,' Bill said, 'How did you even get here?'

Before Rose or James could even open their mouths to try and accuse each other, Albus stepped in front of both of them and said, 'It was an accident. James and Hugo were messing around, being James and Hugo, and then…' He trailed off. 'Erm, why _were _you tearing round the house, James?'

'I sort of stole half of Hugo's chess pieces, but he saw me and started chasing me round the house,' James explained. 'It's the only way I can ever win against Hugo, you've got to play dirty...'

'James, no one cares,' Rose cut in. 'James and Hugo burst into Al's room, where Al, Scorpius and I were looking at this weird necklace we found in the attic –'

'I told you both not to touch it,' Scorpius pointed out, but Rose just made a 'shushing' noise at him and waved him down.

'Anyway, James literally crashed into us in an attempt to 'hide' and nearly killed me in the process,' Rose said.

'You didn't have Hugo catapulting onto you and grabbing James' leg!' Albus scowled. 'Your brother's too tall for his own good.'

'I'm here you know!' Hugo protested. 'James grabbed hold of the necklace when he was trying to get off Rose and away from me. This weird blue light surrounded us, and that's when Lily came in.'

'I came to see what all the screaming and yelling was about, because even with James around that amount of girly shrieking isn't normal –' she ignored James's splutters of indignation '- and got sucked into the light with them. And… here we are.'

'So really it was James' fault,' Rose muttered.

'It was your fault you had the necklace out!' James began to argue back, and seeing Rose reach for her wand in her pocket, Al shouted, 'BOTH OF YOU! SHUT THE HELL UP!'

Everyone from the present simply stared, mouths slightly agape again. Rose and James assumed a staring contest, but quickly stopped when sparks started shooting from Rose's wand and Al glared at them both murderously.

'You really are the next generation of Marauders,' Sirius chuckled.

'So, Grandma,' Hugo smiled at Mrs Weasley, 'what's for dinner?'

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**AN: I'm bringing Teddy and Victoire in, in a couple of chapters' time... you just can't have a time travel fic without Teddy meeting his parents :) I'm debating between Fred and Lucy joining... I don't want it to be too crowded, but Lucy never gets a mention in time travel fics (the ones that I've seen) and I thought she'd be interesting. Leave me a review telling me who, if anyone else, you'd like to see! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed :D**

**ykickamoocow111: Well, you'll just have to wait and see about Rose and Scorpius... I actually haven't decided if they're going to be a pairing in this yet (because I for one love Rose/Scorpius) but IF they are, I promise it won't be mentioned much.**


	3. The Necklace

**AN: 133 of you read the last chapter... 7 of you reviewed :/ BUT! Thank you to all those who did review, tis greatly appreciated :) So keep reviewing!**

**Sunset on Heartache: Wow, you should replace Trelawney - you knew I was making Rose and Scorpius a pairing before I did xD Lol, I've thought about it and decided I am making them a couple. But that won't come out for a few chapters yet.**

**Gliding One: I haven't thought about them going to Hogwarts. Huh. There's an idea to dwell on. :P**

**Disclaimer: I was going to make Polyjuice Potion and turn into JK Rowling... but Snape locked his potion ingredients cupboard :( Therefore, I still don't own.**

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**3**

**The Necklace**

All the Order members were contacted and told of this latest event. Kingsley, Tonks, Moody and Dumbledore were to come over as soon as possible, and other Order members would be going in and out.

Meanwhile, at the table in the kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius, Remus, Bill and Mr Weasley, who'd arrived not long after the six teenagers from the future had, were discussing the necklace the teenagers said had brought them here. The ancient piece of jewellery lay on the table in front of them – it had shown up with the teenagers – with all four men staring at it, thinking it wise not to touch it.

The necklace was really very beautiful and expensive-looking – a pure, fine gold chain, so it hadn't rusted or lost its shine as it aged, threaded all the way through with ridiculously small diamonds that glinted blindingly when turned to the light and small amethysts and rubies dripping off the chain. There was nothing big or showy about it – it was intricate, beautifully handcrafted and had a kind of simplicity about it despite the fact it was obviously very expensive. While Sirius gazed at it in awe, Remus couldn't help feeling uneasy around the necklace. It was too perfect, too alluring and mysterious. And what's to say it wasn't evil, if it had brought the six teens here from the future? Perhaps a curse had been placed upon it. But by whom, and what for? What would sending a couple of unsuspecting curious kids into the past do, for good or for bad?

While the four men threw around theories and what, where, why, how and who questions, the rest of the room was strangely awkward and quiet. It turned out that when you met your children from over twenty-five years in the future, several of whom happened to be named after people for reasons you couldn't guess, and all of whom were scarily alike their parents and namesakes in personalities and looks, not to mention they were half-you and half-someone you had 'secretly' liked for the past four years, no one knew quite what to say.

Except for James, that is.

'So, Uncle George, Uncle Fred,' he grinned, clapping his hands together. Albus suspected that his joy was mostly to do with the fact that he could actually say 'Uncle Fred' – and to be honest, that was he and the others felt as well. 'What pranks do you have lined up this year?'

Beaming, the twins stood up and offered to show James the products they had been working on (quietly, however, so Mrs Weasley would not overhear them), though James of course knew all about them. James agreed eagerly and stood up as well, though he was soon yanked roughly back down into his seat by Rose. He made a show of rubbing his arm, and Albus rolled his eyes.

'James, don't you think we need to… erm, talk about this?' Rose said, as if it were obvious. 'So it's not all awkward.'

'Whatever you say, Rosie,' James nodded, earning himself a glare for using her nickname.

The group of six teenagers were sat opposite their future parents and uncles. James sat at the end of the table opposite Fred, and next to him was Hugo and then Lily, opposite George and Ginny. Next to Lily sat Rose, opposite Hermione, and Albus was beside his cousin sitting opposite Harry. Lastly, Scorpius sat on Albus' other side, opposite – to his horror – Ron. When Fred and George looked over at them, and Bill, Remus, Sirius and Mr Weasley too from time to time, it did not go unnoticed the way in which Albus, Rose and Scorpius sat – exactly as Harry, Ron and Hermione sat, with Harry in the middle and Hermione and Ron on either side of him. In fact, the only people who seemed not to notice this were Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rose, Albus and Scorpius. James, Hugo and Lily were used to it.

'So, tell us again how you got here,' Hermione said, the first person brave enough to ask a question of the future teenagers.

'Well, Rose, Hugo and Scorpius were round at our place, which they always are,' James began.

'That –' Albus started to argue, before he frowned. ' – is very true. Actually, do you three ever go home except to sleep?'

Rose shrugged. 'I go home sometimes to get a book, and Hugo goes home for food,' she said in a reasonable tone. 'But when you put it like that… I don't think we even bother going home to sleep sometimes. I camp in Lily's room when I feel like it and Scorpius stays in Albus' room. Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny just gave up with Hugo in the end and gave him his own room in their house.'

'So we're all really close in the future, then?' Harry guessed.

'As tightknit as a family can get,' Lily nodded. 'And we have a huge family.'

'Really? How big?' Ginny asked eagerly.

'Well, most of our uncles have kids, and Lorcan and Lysander are practically part of the family, as well as Frank and Alice, though they don't come round to The Burrow very often,' Hugo said.

'Which of my other brothers have kids, then?' Ginny asked. 'And who do they marry?'

The future teenagers glanced at each others. They all knew that giving out information like that would lead to questions as to why Fred didn't marry – and why George married his girlfriend and named his son after his twin. They weren't sure they were ready to drop the tragic bombshell quite yet.

'We can't say,' James said, uncharacteristically shortly. 'Not yet.'

This only gave Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins the impression that, perhaps, maybe everything wasn't quite right in the future.

'Well – we got off track anyway,' Hermione said. 'You were saying how about you got here?'

'Oh – yeah, of course,' Albus said. 'Rose, Scorpius and I found this box in the attic of Grimmauld Place – that's where we live now, by the way, it's much nicer in the future – and it was all old and had weird markings on it and looked like something even Kreacher wouldn't touch, so obviously Rose and Scorpius were totally into it.'

'It looked interesting!' Rose protested.

'Yeah, anyway,' Albus continued, 'we took it downstairs to my room, even though I couldn't see the fascination they found in a _box, _and we took the lid off and inside was that necklace over there.' He nodded his head towards the necklace lying on the table being examined by Remus, Sirius, Bill and Mr Weasley.

'I didn't think it was safe to touch, so we left it in the box, though Rose was all for taking it out and trying it on,' Scorpius said, shaking his head. 'Women and their jewellery.'

'I thought it was interesting,' Rose repeated, 'not pretty! I did not want to try it on.'

'Did so.'

'Did not.'

'Did so.'

'Did not!'

Ginny suppressed a smile as Albus shushed them both. 'So we were just looking at it, when we heard the idiocy that is James being his normal self and Hugo being annoyed at him like every normal person constantly is, thundering up the stairs like a herd of elephants. James burst into my room and tried to hide behind Rose –'

'I'm still not sure what you thought that would achieve,' Rose muttered.

'-and Hugo ran in after him. It was just like we said before. James grabbed the necklace when he was trying to scramble off Rose, Lily stormed in demanding to know what all the noise was about, and we were sucked into this blue light before anyone had time to speak,' Albus finished.

'It sounds like some sort of curse was put on the necklace,' Hermione said. 'I've heard of a few curses that can be put on objects to send anyone who touches them back or forward to a certain point in time. They're all extremely complex and ancient, not to mention dangerous.'

'The question is, why would someone put a curse like that on anything?' Scorpius asked. 'What would they hope to achieve?'

'It depends – they must have thought someone in particular would touch the necklace, and be sent forward or back in time,' Rose said. 'But why this year? I really don't think we were the ones who were meant to discover the necklace. How could they be so certain it would reach the person it was intended for? Anybody could go up to the attic and find that necklace.'

'Unless it was intended for an inhabitant of Grimmauld Place,' Albus said quietly.

'We should really discuss this with them,' Harry said, gesturing to the four men at the other end of the table.

'Have you still got the box?' Ginny asked.

The six teenagers looked at each other. 'Crap,' James grimaced. 'No.'

'That would've been helpful, we could have tried to work out what the weird markings were,' Ron said.

'Sorry, we didn't really have much of a chance to grab stuff we thought might be useful when we were transported here,' Hugo sighed.

'Lunch!' Mrs Weasley announced brightly, coming in from the kitchen with trays of food. Before long, the table was filled with trays of sandwiches, sausage rolls and pasties, bowls of tomato soup, fruit and platters of ham and cheese. Apparently, since six people were joining them, Mrs Weasley felt it necessary to whip up five times as much food. Most people wondered vaguely where she got it all from as they sat down to eat, though this did clearly not worry Ron, Hugo and Sirius at all.

'Animals,' Rose said in disbelief, watching as the three dived and piled things on their plate seven at a time. 'Absolute animals.'

Hermione and Ginny nodded in agreement, staring at them too.

'Like father, like son, eh?' Ginny nudged Hermione gently, and she blushed. She still hadn't gotten used to the idea that her and Ron were _married. _Ron was the father to her son and daughter. Ron liked _her. _And now everybody knew. She thought she was the only one who felt that way! Was it possible that even now, Ron felt that way back?

The thoughts going through Ron's head were very similair to the ones going through Hermione's, as he kept stealing glances at her when she wasn't looking, unaware she was doing the exact same thing to him. Ron had thought Hermione liked Krum. How could someone like Hermione want to marry _him? _He was just – just the youngest Weasley brother. Nothing special. And they bickered constantly, and, he was ashamed to admit, he could be fairly nasty to her when he was really moody. Hermione was smart, and witty, and brave and beautiful. What would he look like, stood next to her? Wait, go back a bit – did he actually just think that Hermione was beautiful? Did he just admit to himself that he fancied her? _Great, _he thought agitatedly. _Now I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about that. I won't even be able to talk to her, and it doesn't help that our kids are around now!_

Harry and Ginny, on the other hand, seemed to have decided that not thinking about it at all was the best way to go about the situation. That didn't stop Ginny unconsciously celebrating inside her own head – apparently she hadn't realised she had a huge, obvious grin on her face yet. Harry was finding excuses not to talk to her, and had found a seat at the other end of the table. How could he sit next to her when he didn't know what he felt for her anymore? To him, she was still just Ron's Younger Sister. It was like a title. It was what he'd always thought when he thought of her. And Harry had certainly never fancied her. He fancied Cho! And he'd just been told he was married to Ginny Weasley, his best friend's sister, in the future and had three kids with her! And to top it all off, every single one of her brothers would be watching him now, threatening him even though he didn't even have feelings for her yet. _Yet. When did they develop? _Harry wondered. _What if Ginny expects me to ask her out now? What if she gets the wrong idea and thinks I already fancy her? I can't suddenly go out with her because of what's happened, it's not fair to her. Or me, for that matter. _How did one handle something like this?

So much for not thinking about their current situation at all.

Conversation was much easier when everyone was eating. Everyone wanted to know everything they could get out of the six teenagers from the future. They found it difficult to filter out information they couldn't give away at the moment: information about the war, about how damaging it was and if anyone close to them died, information about Voldemort. The necklace was forgotten - Remus had managed to wrap it in a thick cloth without touching it and placed it carefully inside a drawer, all theories and thoughts about it set aside for the time being.

It turned out the adults wished to know more about their future lives as well, and when Fred and George demanded to know who they married, there was a lull in conversation at the long dining table.

Everyone turned to the six teenagers, who had been scattered slightly but all sat near each other, who looked uneasy.

'It can't hurt to tell us who we marry and who our kids are,' Fred pleaded.

'Yeah, you'll have to Obliviate us anyway when you go back, won't you?' George added.

'Yes…' Rose said uncertainly, glancing round at the table. Something suddenly made sense in Remus' head.

'Not everyone here now makes it, do they?' he asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

Rose shook her head, her expression apologetic and sad.

Albus looked around at the people he'd heard so much about, but never met. His Uncle Fred, so sure he was going to have a life exactly like his twin's, running the shop they were saving up and making products for for years to come. Remus, Teddy's father, who had his life snatched cruelly away from him so soon after it finally became whole and perfect. The last Marauder to die. He wished Teddy were here, so he could meet his parents, at least once. Tonks would be coming later. Finally he looked at Sirius. Albus knew Sirius was the closest his dad had ever had to a father, despite the short time they'd had together. Sirius was one of Harry's last connections to his father. His being there, his existence, meant everything to Harry, as did the lives of Fred, Remus and Tonks.

And though he knew it was selfish, Albus knew he couldn't tell them.

Not yet.

Nobody knew quite what to say next. They couldn't just move on to another topic of conversation, not after they'd just heard that some of them wouldn't make it through the war. And yet it was obvious the teenagers weren't going to tell them who those people were, yet.

Then Scorpius found a way to break the silence.

'Rosie,' he said cautiously, 'you know we talked about you not freaking out about things?'

'Yeah…' Rose said slowly. Al looked over Scorpius' shoulder, and his eyes widened when they landed on Rose.

'Well, now is one of those times not to freak out,' Scorpius continued, a hand reaching slowly towards Rose's hair. Ron was about to ask him what the hell he was doing to his daughter, when Scorpius said, 'You see, you've got a spider in your hair.'

'AAAAAHHHHH!' Rose shrieked, leaping out of her chair and shaking her head about wildly. She jumped up and down, screaming repeatedly, ignoring Scorpius and Al's desperate attempts to get her to stand still by trying to catch her flailing arms and pinning them down. It was an extremely comical scene, and James was shaking with laughter, tears of mirth in his eyes.

'Rose – Rosie – stand still!' Albus yelled. 'You're overreacting!'

In response, one of Rose's flailing arms whacked Albus in the face. He staggered back, hand over his nose, which only made James laugh even more.

'Rose, stop, it's out!' Scorpius shouted. 'It's on the floor!'

Abruptly, Rose stopped. Her face was bright red and her hair had frizzed up dramatically.

'It's there,' Scorpius said, pointing to the floor beside Ron's chair. 'It's fine.'

Immediately, Ron leapt out of his chair and hurried to stand at the other end of the dining room, while Rose scrambled behind Scorpius, using him as her personal human shield. The rest of the occupants of the room who had been either amused or shocked before, cracked up with laughter.

'Rose – what the hell?' Hugo said in disbelief, peering around Hermione. 'That's _tiny!'_

'Somebody kill it,' Rose pleaded weakly.

'Rose, we're not killing a perfectly innocent _miniscule _creature just because you happen to be petrified of it,' Scorpius told her.

'Then get rid of it!' Ron called, his voice slightly higher than normal. Harry couldn't help but snort with laughter at the identical looks of terror on both Ron and Rose's faces.

'Yes, now, before it eats me,' Rose said breathlessly, not taking her eyes off the spider for a second.

'I don't think the spider can fit you in its belly, Rose,' Albus sighed, patting his favourite cousin on the shoulder. His nose was bright red.

'It's evil,' both Rose and Ron said convincingly at the same time.

'Sorry about that,' Sirius grinned. 'It's this house. It's full of evil Satanic creatures like spiders.'

Rose shot him a dirty look.

'Fine, I'll get rid of it!' Scorpius gave in. He fetched a tissue from the kitchen and scooped the spider up in it (Rose squealed) and stood up again. 'It's harmless,' he told Rose, who remained unconvinced. He waved the tissue in her face, and she screamed again and took off at a sprint around the dining table. Scorpius chased her, grinning, waving the tightly-held tissue above his head, teasing her with it. He was a faster runner than her, so she couldn't get away from him.

'Come on, Scorpius, don't be mean!' Lily called. Albus was just shaking his head at his friends. Scorpius glanced at Lily, and tripped over Bill's chair leg, falling flat on his face.

The whole table erupted into laughter. 'Can't say you didn't deserve it, mate,' Albus grinned, as Rose sat back down next to him.

'Scorpius Malfoy, I hate you,' she said matter-of-factly, though she was smiling, cheered by Scorpius' misfortune.

Scorpius picked himself up off the floor, scowling, and brushed himself off. 'Wait – I dropped the tissue. Where'd the spider go?'

As Rose and Ron looked around wildly for the tiny creature, Harry leaned over to Ginny and said quietly, 'She's definitely Ron's daughter.'

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**Teddy and Victoire arrive next chapter! And Teddy meets his parents! Yay! I still need more people's opinions on whether Fred and/or Lucy should come. I suppose Lucy would be interesting because of Percy not speaking to the family at the time this is set, and Fred would just be there to wreak havoc :D Please Review!**


	4. The Parents You Never Knew

**AN: Thank you to all those who reviewed/added to alerts/added to favourites! I'm posting this now because I don't know if I'm going to be able to get another chapter up until next Saturday (I know, I'm sorry!). I have a really long final rehearsal of the show my theatre group is putting on tomorrow, straight after school until 8.30pm, and I'll be shattered when I get home. Tuesday I'll probably be revising for about 3 tests I've got coming up this week and next, and trying to actually do some writing. Then I've got shows Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and I have a feeling that when they're over I'll be ready to sleep for a million years (you try standing up for one and a half hours for 3 nights in a row). Except I can't, because Saturday night I have a singing competition (I haven't practised nearly enough, eek!), so I'll probably only have time to post a chapter on Saturday afternoon before I go (for the rest of Saturday I'll be sleeping so I don't doze off in the middle of one of my high notes, or backstage xD). I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT SUNDAY A LOT. xD Anyhoo, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own... obviously...**

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4

The Parents You Never Knew

'Where are they all?' Mr Weasley grumbled, checking his watch for the billionth time in an hour. 'They should have been here before lunch, business or no business!'

He was talking, of course, about the Order members that had been contacted as soon as the six teenagers from the future had explained their situation. He knew he, Bill, Remus and Sirius were more than capable of handling the whole bizarre thing, but the necklace was another matter. It could potentially have Dark magic in it, and they needed to know exactly the curse that had been placed upon it to transport the kids back in time, and start working on what was to be done with the young time travellers. They didn't know if their presence would be missed in the future, or if time, in a manner of speaking, quite literally stood still. This wasn't a Timeturner they were talking about – they had no idea what kind of magic this necklace had had placed upon it, and this put the teenagers in danger.

'I'm sure they'll be along soon, Arthur,' Mrs Weasley assured her husband. She was cleaning up the remains of lunch, having argued Lily and Hugo away half an hour ago when they offered to help, saying they should relax and get to know everyone else, and stop worrying about this necklace business for a bit. 'We'll certainly know when Tonks is here, in any case.'

She'd barely finished speaking when they heard something crash to the floor, followed quickly by a yelp and a sheepish, 'Sorry!'

Mrs Weasley sighed as Sirius' mother began to shriek and wail in the hallway.

'It's all right, Tonks!' Arthur called, marching down the hallway to meet her. He grabbed hold of the curtains with Sirius, who'd come out of the living room, and together they eventually managed to force the curtains shut and silence the screeching portrait. 'Glad you're here. Where are the others?'

'Oh, Mad-Eye and Kinsgley had some things to tie up, but they'll be here soon,' Tonks told him. Her hair was shoulder-length and violet today, whilst her eyes were blue. She carefully set the ugly umbrella stand she'd knocked down back on its feet again and beamed at Mr Weasley. 'So, what's the emergency?'

'Nothing you could imagine in your wildest dreams,' Mr Weasley said as way of a reply. 'It's better just to show you.'

Tonks followed Mr Weasley to the living room, where everyone had gathered and were chatting in their small groups. The atmosphere was still a little awkward, and anyway, everyone knew they would relax more once they knew something was being done about their situation.

'Everyone, Tonks is here!' Mr Weasley announced, striding into the middle of the room. 'For those of you who don't know, this is –'

'_You're _Tonks?' James breathed. 'You're Teddy's –'

Rose punched James in the arm so hard he was sure there would be a bruise there for months.

Tonks, however, wasn't listening. Instead, she was staring at the six newcomers, her mouth agape.

'Harry,' she said slowly, 'were you aware you'd been cloned?'

'Tonks,' Bill said, 'we have some explaining to do.'

Half an hour later, Tonks had finally got to grips with the fact that these kids were from twenty-seven years in the future, and were Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Draco Malfoy's children.

'Are there any more nasty surprises for me?' she joked, once the explanation about the necklace was over.

'Yeah,' James said. 'Except, they're not nasty.'

'James, will you _shut up?' _Rose begged, beyond annoyed.

'You know, I wish you lot would just come out and tell us everything,' George said. 'It would be a lot easier.'

'I don't know,' Rose sighed. 'Maybe we should –'

CRASH.

'That was the umbrella stand again,' Bill said. 'Mad-Eye and Kinglsey must be here.'

'Teddy!' an extremely exasperated female voice groaned, as Mrs Black began to scream her curses again. 'Why? Why is it every single time?'

James, Albus, Lily, Rose, Hugo and Scorpius stared at each other in shock, while everyone else looked confused and wary. Who was Teddy, and the woman he was with?

Everyone rushed into the hall again. Two people were trying unsuccessfully to yank the portrait's curtains shut again, until the woman noticed the large crowd of people that had assembled. 'A little help here?' she asked.

James strode forward immediately, and he and Teddy managed to close the curtains again.

'I'm guessing you know these people, then?' Bill asked James, and the five other teenagers.

'Yeah,' Lily said. 'They're from our time.'

'Bloody hell, how many of you are coming? We don't have more kids, do we?' Ron asked, looking terrified at the very thought.

Rose chuckled. 'Nah, just us. But these two are family.'

'Was it you that knocked over the umbrella stand?' Ginny asked Teddy.

'Er – yeah,' Teddy said sheepishly, while the woman rolled her eyes. 'Hang on – _bloody hell. _Are these –'

'Our parents and uncles, yep,' Albus nodded. 'And Grandma and Grandad too, of course.' Mrs Weasley had just joined the crowd after hearing the commotion, and visibly flushed with pride at being called 'Grandma'.

'And you're Sirius,' Teddy said to the black-haired man, who looked surprised he knew him but nodded.

'And I'm Tonks!' Tonks announced herself brightly, skipping forward and offering her hand to Teddy to shake. Teddy stared at her, mouth open. Then his eyes flicked over to Remus, half-hidden in the group, and his mouth got, if possible, even wider. 'What?' Tonks frowned, concerned.

'Nothing,' Teddy said slowly. He looked as if he were struggling with several emotions. 'I – I –'

'Teddy, I think you should introduce yourself,' Rose said, smiling at him encouragingly.

'Right,' Teddy nodded, and seemed to find his voice. 'I'm – I'm Teddy. Teddy Remus Lupin.'

Silence.

'Moony, mate!' Sirius grinned, clapping his best friend on the back. 'Didn't Lily always tell you? Didn't she say you'd find someone?'

'You're my son?' Remus whispered. 'But how – you don't –'

'I'm not a werewolf,' Teddy smiled. 'But I do get cranky around the full moon.'

'Who's your mother?' Hermione asked.

This made Rose and Lily beam brightly at the prospect of Teddy finally getting to meet both his parents, for the first time in his life that he could remember. Teddy simply grinned, and his hair darkened from light brown to chestnut, to yellow, to green, to red, to pink, to turquoise, before finally settling on the exact same shade of violet as Tonks'.

'You're my son!' Tonks squealed, like a hyperactive five-year-old. 'You're my son! Wait – Remus –' She turned to the astonished-looking werewolf to see his reaction. 'We have a son, Remus. A son.'

Remus' gaze flicked from Teddy, who had a hopeful, overwhelmed look on his face, to Tonks, and back to Teddy. Suddenly, he looked quite faint – but a disbelieving smile had spread on his face. 'Yes,' he said quietly. 'We do.'

With that, both Tonks and Teddy's grins widened. Tears were brimming at Tonks' blue eyes and her hair had turned to bubblegum pink, her favourite colour. Albus noted that Teddy's eyes, too, were shining with water.

Wordlessly, the small family stepped closer to each other, shyly and uncertainly, until they met in the middle of the hallway. Tonks couldn't help herself any longer. She threw herself at Teddy, wrapping her arms around her son in a hug to rival those of Mrs Weasley's.

'Rem – Dad?' Teddy asked nervously over Tonks' shoulder. 'You – you are okay with this, aren't you? I really am fine, I swear, and –'

He was cut off by Remus stepping forward and enveloping both his future son and wife in his arms. The group of three stood embraced like that for a while, the silence broken only by the occasional sob from Tonks.

'Best leave them to it,' Mr Weasley smiled. Albus turned to see everyone with beams on their faces, happy for their friends. He, his cousins and siblings were especially pleased for Teddy – though now they knew they'd have to answer everybody's questions. It wasn't fair to keep them in the dark any longer.

'That went better than I expected,' Harry said quietly to Sirius.

'Just wait,' Sirius grimaced. 'Before long, Remus'll have somehow managed to come up with a hundred and three reasons why he shouldn't have married Tonks and had a son. Better prepare yourself for that.'

'Wait, so who's this?' Ginny asked, finally noticing the woman who'd arrived with Teddy. The newcomer had long, silvery-blonde hair, fair skin and ice blue eyes. She was fairly petite, and very slim. In short, she was beautiful.

'Malfoy didn't have a daughter as well, did he?' George said, making a face and looking disgusted at the very thought of it, though that didn't stop he and Fred checking the young woman out.

Scorpius rolled his eyes, while the blonde woman's pretty features darkened to a scowl. 'No, though I do know Scorpius,' she said. 'I'm Victoire Apolline Weasley.'

'French names?' Hermione frowned, at the same time Bill said, 'Another Weasley?'

'She's our cousin,' Rose said.

'My father is Bill Weasley,' Victoire smiled. Bill grinned, and the twins abruptly stopped checking her out now they'd learnt they were related to her. 'And my mother is Fleur Delacour.'

Ginny made a noise like she was coughing up a hairball (and looked like she was too), while Hermione and Mrs Weasley didn't look best pleased either. Bill looked beyond ecstatic, and everyone else was sniggering, the twins the loudest.

'What's this?' Mrs Weasley tried, and failed, for a pleasant, interested tone of voice.

'Oh, Mum, didn't you know?' Fred grinned. 'Bill's been giving Fleur private lessons.'

'So she can 'eemprove 'er Eenglish',' George added, smirking. 'Just what English he's been improving, we don't know –'

'George!' Mrs Weasley admonished, before turning to her eldest son and speaking in a harsh, hushed voice. 'What do you think you've been doing behind my back? Seeing _her –'_

'Excuse me, that's my mother you're talking about,' Victoire said a little coldly, hearing her. Mrs Weasley flushed.

'I haven't been 'seeing' her, Mum,' Bill sighed. 'And it's not up to you to decide who I marry – or who I have children with.' He smiled at Victoire, who beamed back, her dazzling smile lighting up her face.

'You can see the Veela genes,' Ron remarked quietly to Harry, eyebrows raised at the half-French girl.

'Ron, that's your niece!' Hermione scolded. Ron made a show of clearing his throat, ears turning red. Harry sniggered.

'I can't believe Bill marries Phlegm,' Ginny scowled. 'What in the name of Merlin was he thinking?'

'Victoire seems nice,' Hermione pointed out fairly. 'And you're talking about your future sister-in-law… so maybe you do learn to like her.'

'Hell will freeze over first,' Ginny muttered, though she did have to admit to herself that she couldn't yet find any fault with Victoire. Except that she was too pretty. Great, now she was worried about being outshone by her _niece._

'I'm not all bad,' Victoire joked. 'I am a Gryffindor, and I was Prefect and Head Girl.'

'Are you sure you're not Percy's daughter?' Fred frowned disapprovingly, spitting his brother's name out with venom and being careful not to let his mother hear him.

'Hey, I was a prefect and Head Boy,' Bill said. 'Do you have a problem with that?' He was glaring at Fred.

'No – no, course not,' Fred said quickly, eyes widening. 'That's just fine. Good achievement,' he added to Victoire. Everyone chuckled.

'I'm not into Quidditch though,' Victoire admitted. 'I take after Mum in that. Brooms and I just don't agree.'

'Victoire needs a warning sign on her when she's flying,' James said. 'It's shameful, really.'

'Would you like to say that again?' Teddy asked innocently. He'd broken apart from his parents and slipped his hand into Victoire's. It was James' turn to look scared. 'I'm not very good at Quidditch either,' Teddy said to his parents.

'Ah, you take after me then,' Tonks said cheerily.

'Yeah, I'm a bit of a health and safety hazard to others around me on a broom,' Teddy grimaced. 'But I love to play Beater.'

'He still hasn't noticed he's always the last to be picked for a team when we play at The Burrow,' Hugo said in a stage-whisper. Teddy scowled at him, and everyone else laughed.

'Which house are you in?' Tonks asked eagerly.

'The Sorting Hat was torn between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor,' Teddy said. 'For a while, I thought it wasn't going to put me anywhere. But it finally decided on Gryffindor.' Remus smiled. 'But nearly everything else I have is from you, Mum. My, erm, clumsiness, for example.'

'Oh, yes, the umbrella stand,' Tonks giggled. 'How old are you two, then?'

'I'm twenty-three, and Teddy's twenty-four,' Victoire said.

'Oh my god!' Ginny squealed. Her eyes were fixed on Teddy and Victoire's clasped hands, and a ring glinting on Victoire's finger. 'You're married!'

Tonks' squeal was even more excited than Ginny's. She hurried forward to embrace her son again, pulling Victoire with her.

'Yeah,' Teddy grinned. 'We got married three months ago.'

'After four years of Teddy basically harassing Victoire and giving her hell,' James snorted.

'What was it – stalking her and dropping love letters in to her at work, getting owls to peck at her window in the middle of the night, proposing and being humiliated in public seventeen times?' Lily laughed.

'Yeah, we were taking bets on whether Victoire would even turn up at the wedding,' Albus smirked.

'Of course I was going to turn up,' Victoire said hotly. 'I just didn't want to get married at nineteen, that's all.'

'I know, love,' Teddy smiled, kissing her forehead. Tonks stood with Remus, fresh tears threatening to spill over. 'I'm just persistent.'

'And ridiculously stubborn,' Victoire said fondly. 'And I'm glad you were.'

'Wait – one thing we've not cleared up,' Rose spoke up. 'How did you two even get here?'

Victoire immediately stepped away from Teddy as if remembering something and folded her arms, glaring at him. Teddy gave a nervous laugh, running his hand through his turquoise hair.

He took a deep breath, carefully avoiding Victoire's murderous glare. 'Ah, well, you see, it's a funny story…'

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**Teddy and Victoire are here! Hope you enjoyed that, I'm aware it wasn't the most exciting chapter in the world, but Teddy met his parents for the first time. Please review - it might keep me going this week o.O I'll see you again on Saturday, when this will all be (nearly) over! **


	5. I'm Sorry

**A/N: Wow, it's been over a week. I WAS going to update Sunday, because I didn't get round to it on Saturday, but unfortunately I was one of the many people affected by this error thingy that won't let you update - but I found out how to cheat the system, thanks to Intervigilium. And then I heard of an even better way to get round it - when you click on 'Edit', just replace the word 'property' with the word 'content' in the url.**

** All my shows went really well, and so did my singing competition (I didn't win. Lol, it was only my first time). I'm absolutely exhausted though, and I got dragged out by my parents today to get some fresh air. Climbing rocks. I would never admit it out loud, but no matter how old you get, you never grow out of climbing rocks :P It's quite funny, whenever I'm forced out into the great outdoors I'm always really moody (I _am _a teenager) and my dad ends up buying me loads of sweets to cheer me up. Works every time! xD **

**ANYHOO, on with the story! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own this. If I did, DRACO AND RON WOULD BE REAL AND ALL MINEMINEMINE.**

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**5**

**I'm Sorry**

'Yes, it's absolutely hilarious!' Victoire snapped hysterically.

'Whoa, what's wrong with you two?' James asked.

'Yeah, you were all lovey-dovey and pukey and now Vic looks ready to hex you into the middle of next week, Teddy,' Hugo said conversationally.

'Well, I sort of broke Vic's antique jewellery box…' Teddy said guiltily.

'I got that from my grandmother!' Victoire cried angrily. 'Not you, Grandma, my mother's mother. It's the only thing I've got left to remind me of her!'

'Vic,' Teddy tried to apologise. 'I'm sorry – really, love, I am –'

'Wait, what's breaking a stupid jewellery box got to do with being sent here?' James asked insensitively. Victoire promptly burst into tears. 'What? What did I say?' James asked indignantly, a bewildered look on his face.

Rose smacked him on the arm. 'Insensitive git,' she accused. 'It was her grandmother's _antique _jewellery box. Her grandmother isn't alive anymore.' She said this last part quietly so Victoire wouldn't hear her and get even more upset. Victoire and her French grandmother had been very close, and the jewellery box had been the old lady's parting gift to her granddaughter before she passed away two years ago (well, two years ago in the future).

Realisation seemed to dawn on James. 'Oh…' he said slowly. Then he looked sheepish. 'Oh.'

Teddy wrapped an arm around Victoire's shoulders. 'Sssh, sssh… it's okay, love, don't cry… let's not get into this now, we have more important things to worry about, like how we're stuck twenty-seven years in the past.' Victoire cried harder and Sirius snorted with laughter at Teddy's failure.

'Were she and her grandmother close?' Hermione asked Rose quietly.

'Very,' Rose said. 'That was Teddy's dismal attempt to try and cheer her up while moving on to another topic.'

To her and everyone else's surprise, Hermione stepped towards the sobbing young woman, who was actually eight years older than her at this moment, and put her arms around her, taking her from Teddy. Victoire cried loudly into Hermione's shoulder, her sobs muffled, and Hermione spoke softly to her until her crying finally subsided. The young woman withdrew from Hermione's arms, sniffing and wiping her eyes. 'Thank you,' she told Hermione simply. 'S-sorry,' she added to the rest of the group. 'I d-don't know w-what came o-over me…'

'It's OK,' Sirius said hastily. He'd never been very good with crying girls – and neither had James.

'Sorry for making you cry, Vicky,' the eldest Potter son muttered, an embarrassed attempt at an apology. Victoire simply nodded, still trying to regain her composure.

'Er – yeah, so.' Sirius coughed awkwardly. 'How you got here…?'

'Oh yeah,' Teddy sighed in relief, before his face suddenly fell again. He glanced at Victoire fearfully. 'Well, Vic and I were in our room getting ready to go out to dinner, and I tripped over the dresser table leg and went headfirst into the dresser, knocking Vic's jewellery box off. The lid flew off its hinges, and it kind of cracked down the middle…' Victoire showed no signs of sobbing hysterically again, so Teddy continued, confidence renewed. 'Then before we had time to register what had happened, this blue light appeared and… well, it engulfed us. There's no other way to describe it.'

'That's weird,' Lily remarked. 'The exact same thing happened to us… with a necklace.'

'What necklace?' Teddy asked, and the group proceeded to tell him and Victoire all about the old necklace that Albus, Rose and Scorpius had found in the attic of 12 Grimmauld Place, and what their thoughts were on it being cursed.

'It must have the same curse on it as the jewellery box,' Bill said. 'But then how are they connected?'

'I just thought of something!' Sirius shouted, much more loudly than was necessary.

'Merlin, it's the end of the world as we know it!' Albus gasped dramatically, before sniggering. Sirius sent him a glare.

'You say you found the necklace in this house, in the future. Well – what if it's there now?' Sirius looked very impressed with himself.

'It's in a drawer in the kitchen,' Ron stated slowly. 'How could it be in the attic?'

Rose bit back a laugh, deciding to ignore her dad for the moment as everyone else stared at Ron incredulously. 'I'm all for checking it out.'

Rose, Albus, Scorpius, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Teddy, Fred, George and James (because he didn't want to miss out on all the fun) raced upstairs to where half of them knew where the attic was.

'What were you three doing in the attic anyway?' Teddy asked.

'We were bored,' they shrugged, as if this were explanation enough.

'Come on, Teddy, do you know who we're talking about here?' James scoffed. 'Whenever Al, Rose and Scorpius here get bored, they go searching for a mystery to solve or some sort of danger to get involved in or something like that.'

'We do not,' Rose frowned.

'We kind of do,' Albus said, as if he was realising it for the very first time.

Harry, Ron and Hermione glanced at each other. Albus, Rose and Scorpius were beginning to remind them of themselves more and more.

'Is that right?' Fred said, smirking.

'And here we were thinking you were the goody-two-shoes' of your time. We seem to be mistaken,' George said approvingly.

'It's not like we mean to get into trouble most of the time…' Al pointed out.

'It just happens,' Scorpius, Rose, Teddy and James finished at the same time.

'Maybe you could give our very own Golden Trio a run for their money?' Fred suggested.

'Your very own what?' Harry, Ron and Hermione repeated, but no one had a chance to answer them as Sirius had finally managed to wrench the attic door open.

'Where did you find the necklace in your time?' Sirius asked.

'Over there, in that corner.'Al nodded to the corner furthest away. Like the rest of the attic, there were mainly just boxes shoved there. Unlike the rest of the attic, there was nothing else. Every other box in the small room had a foreign or dodgy looking object sitting on top of it, and there were various portraits wedged into any free space. There seemed to be a lot of furniture that looked brand new – mahogany dressers and side table, elaborate lamps and even a green velvet sofa. Harry found it odd that there was nothing broken stored up here – and then he remembered that _Reparo_ probably fixed most things for wizards. The attic was dark, gloomy and musty. Albus tried and failed to hold back a sneeze – it definitely wasn't this dusty in his time, or cluttered. In fact, he recognised nothing except the stack of boxes in the corner from the few times he'd been up to the attic.

The group traipsed across to the corner Al had pointed out. There wasn't much to search: after turning every single box upside down at least twenty times, they turned to searching the rest of the attic. They combed every inch thoroughly, but there was still no sign of the necklace or the box it came in.

'It's not here,' Ron frowned. 'That doesn't make sense.'

'It was obviously planted here in the future, Ronald,' Hermione explained, giving a long-suffering sigh.

'But I'm the only one that lives here,' Sirius said. 'I wouldn't put a necklace with a curse on it in the attic for anyone to touch.'

'It could have been one of the Order members, I suppose, but I can't see a reason for them doing anything like that,' Hermione said.

'Bet it was Snape,' Ron grumbled.

'What motive would he have?' Hermione asked in the tone of someone about to point out a million reasons why he _wouldn't _have a motive.

'Well,' Ron said, 'He's a right foul git, for a start. And he hates Harry.'

'That doesn't make sense, Ron!' Hermione cried. 'Why would he want to send anyone back in time?'

'Come on, Hermione, he's evil and you know it!'

'Just because you hate him almost as much as Harry does, Ron!'

The rest of the group turned away from their argument, rolling their eyes.

'Do they always fight like that?' Sirius asked.

'Yes,' chorused Harry, Rose, Albus, Teddy and James. Harry turned to his sons and niece in surprise. 'They still bicker when they're married?'

'All the time,' Rose said. 'Would you expect any different?'

'No, you're right,' Harry chuckled. The group descended the attic stairs and returned to the living room. Ron and Hermione were still arguing when they got there.

'I'm telling you, Hermione, it's part of his plan, Snape's an evil git, would you –' Ron never finished his sentence. His jaw fell open and he stared in horror into the living room. Hermione followed his gaze, and she too looked horrified.

'Oh – erm, hello, Professor,' she said awkwardly. Severus Snape, who was standing the middle of the room, spared the people who'd just come in a glance, before marching to the door, pulling on his black cloak.

'I will see what I can find, Lupin,' he said curtly. Glaring at Ron, he added, 'Amongst carrying out my 'evil plan', of course.' And with that, he swept from the room, cloak billowing behind him.

'Who knew that Snape could do sarcasm?' Fred said in wonder when they heard the front door shut.

'Who knew Ron had such bad timing?' George asked.

'Everyone,' the two of them said in unison.

'We couldn't find the necklace,' Sirius told Remus, Bill and Mr Weasley. 'It's not there.'

'That could be because it really is in the kitchen drawer,' Remus said. 'Meaning, when the children got transported here the necklace from this time disappeared, as well.'

'I don't even want to think about how that works,' James grimaced. 'It's like trying to figure out what was before the universe.'

He continued talking, but it was to himself, as everyone else blocked him out.

'Well, Severus and a couple of other Order members are going to try and look up some curses we think may be connected to the necklace, and the jewellery box,' Remus said. 'We're also arranging for a couple of people to go to France, to check up on the jewellery box. yI've sent a Patronus to Dumbledore and McGonagall, but they're unavailable at this time. There's not much else we can do for the moment.'

Teddy nodded. 'So… do you guys want to know more about the future?'

In a few minutes, everyone was settled in the living room on chairs and cushions had been conjured up. Mr and Mrs Weasley sat on the only sofa in the room. Next to them sat Victoire and Teddy on chairs, and next to Teddy were Tonks and Remus, who understandably didn't want to be far away from their son. Fred and George sat on chairs on the other side of the sofa, and Sirius and Bill were across the room from. Everyone else – Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, James, Albus, Rose, Scorpius, Hugo and Lily – was settled on cushions in the middle in a higgledy-piggledy circle.

First tell us how many other grandchildren we have,' Mrs Weasley said eagerly. 'Oh, I'm sorry, dear, I didn't mean to sound –'

Teddy chuckled. 'It's alright, Grandma,' he said. He'd called Mrs Weasley 'Grandma' for as long as he could remember, though he'd never called Harry and Ginny, 'Dad and Mum'. 'Vic, do you want to start?'

'Of course,' she smiled. 'I have a sister called Dominique, who is three years younger than me, and a brother called Louis who is a year older than James. The five of us live at Shell Cottage – well, I did, until I moved in with Teddy.' She smiled at her husband, and he leaned down to kiss her. James pretended to gag.

'Oh, grow up,' Rose sighed, rolling her eyes.

'Never!' James gasped, looking scandalised.

Bill was smiling. He was married to a smart, beautiful woman and he had three kids, one of whom had married someone he couldn't have picked better himself. He didn't think he could be much happier right now.

'Louis looks exactly like Mum, like me, but Dom is like the female version of you, Dad,' Victoire told Bill. 'I can't play Quidditch to save my life, like I said before, but Louis' okay and Dom's brilliant at it. She plays Beater for Gryffindor, and Louis' in Hufflepuff.'

'Ah, Bill, your son sounds like a wuss,' George teased.

'He is not,' Victoire snapped, defending her brother. 'He got into a fight for Rose the other week – and won.'

'Yeah, he's more protective of Rose than Hugo is,' James said. 'And that's saying something.'

'Why was he fighting for you?' Hermione asked sharply. 'What happened to you?'

Rose and Scorpius shifted uncomfortably. 'Er... we'll tell you later,' Rose compromised. Hermione frowned, but let it go.

'Next is Uncle Percy,' James said.

'He comes back?' Mrs Weasley gasped.

Victoire, James, Albus, Lily, Rose and Hugo glanced at each other. 'He left?'

'For a couple of years,' Teddy said quietly. 'Harry told me.'

Mrs Weasley burst into joyful tears and cried into her husband's chest.

'Well, at least he comes to his senses! But for now he's still a git,' Fred said decisively.

'Uncle Percy has two daughters,' James said, once his grandmother had recovered. 'Molly's a year older than Dom, and Lucy's the same as Louis.'

'Percy named his daughter after me?' Mrs Weasley sniffed, and her eyes began to water again. 'Oh, Percy!'

'Molly's in Ravenclaw. She's really bookish and quiet, and doesn't like Quidditch. She's a lot like her mum,' James said.

'Who's her mother?' Mr Weasley asked.

'Audrey Meadows,' Albus said. 'Uncle Percy met her at the Ministry. She's really nice.'

'Lucy's really good at Quidditch, but she doesn't play. Louis is pretty much her best friend. I don't think she likes the rest of us much.' James pretended to be hurt as he said this.

'Why?' Bill asked.

'Who knows?' James shrugged. 'She _is _a Slytherin, it's no surprise she's strange.'

Albus punched his brother. 'There's nothing wrong with being a Slytherin!' he said hotly. 'And Lucy's not strange, she's… rebellious.'

'Rebellious?' Fred's eyebrows were raised in disbelief. 'Percy's daughter?'

'Yep,' Albus nodded. 'She's kind of hard to explain.'

'So we'll move on,' Lily said. 'Uncle George has two kids, Fred and Roxanne.'

'Why would I name my son after you?' George snorted. 'I wouldn't want him to end up with the same ugly mug.'

'No idea, dear brother,' Fred shrugged. 'Maybe you were drunk like Harry was when he named Albus.'

Al scowled at him.

'Fred's the same age as James,' Hugo said.

'A prankster?' George questioned keenly.

'One hundred percent,' Hugo grimaced. 'Fred and James are best friends. You really don't want to be the victim in one of their pranks.'

'We've been in McGonagall's office so many times we're on first name terms,' James said proudly. Rose and Lily rolled their eyes.

'Wait, who am I married to?' George asked.

'Angelina Johnson,' Lily said.

'WHAT!' yelled Fred. 'You stole my girlfriend! You traitor!'

'Can't say I blame her,' George smirked.

'You – she – _married _– that's unforgivable,' Fred muttered angrily. 'Unforgivable.'

'Fred's in Gryffindor, of course, and so is Roxanne,' Teddy said, deciding to just carry on. 'They're both into Quidditch, seeing as they have parents who play, but only Fred plays on the team. He's Gryffindor's other Beater. Roxanne looks exactly like her mum, while Fred looks like George.'

'We know,' the twins said. It took a minute for everyone to get it, and when they did, Rose groaned.

'God, you're even worse than Dad said you were!' she complained.

'What?' This came from everyone from the present. The time travellers looked nervously at each other, and Rose bit her lip. It was time.

'_Were_?' Fred's eyes narrowed. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

And then it dawned on him.

'_Were,'_ he repeated. 'George's the one who marries Angelina. George names his son after me.' His voice was barely audible now. 'I don't make it.'

'You die in the Second Wizarding War,' Rose whispered. 'Less than three years from now. I'm sorry.'

Fred's whole body slumped. George wrapped his arms around his twin in a hug that it seemed like they would never break out of it. Bill, Ron and Ginny's expressions were unreadable as the information slowly registered in their reluctant brains and Harry and Hermione looked shocked. Sirius and Remus glanced down in sadness, while Tonks looked on the verge of tears. The time travellers simply stared at the embracing twins, sadness and regret building up inside them for the uncle (for most of them) they'd never known.

The whole room was silent for a few minutes before they realised Mrs Weasley was shaking with silent sobs. Unsteadily, she stood up and made her way over to her true middle child, and wrapped him in a hug. George didn't let go. Mr Weasley followed his wife and comforted her, resting a hand on Fred's shoulder. He was followed by Bill and then Ginny, whose face was already tear-streaked. Ginny _never _cried. Last to go was Ron. It was as if he didn't want to believe it… if he didn't go and support his brother, maybe he wouldn't die…

'They need you,' Hermione said quietly, her voice breaking. Ron only nodded and stood up slowly, joining his family. Hermione broke down, and Harry pulled her into a hug. Usually Ron would have been jealous. But not right now.

Jealousy just seemed so stupid right now. Everything did.

Fred lifted his head. 'How did it – how did I –' He was incapable of voicing the final word.

'Like a hero,' Scorpius said. He was the only person from the future capable of speaking right now, and it surprised a couple of people that he did so. 'You died fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts. The final battle.'

'You knew Percy was back on your side,' Rose whispered. 'You knew Percy was back.'

'Good,' Fred said, in a surprisingly strong voice. 'Good.'

There was nothing else to say. Eventually, the Weasleys drifted away from Fred, one by one, but they stayed close to him, all except Ron. He rejoined Harry and Hermione. He was deathly pale and his blue eyes cloudy. Hermione wrapped her arms around him as soon as he reached them. Rose gave a small, sad smile.

'I guess I should get this out now,' Teddy said in a strangely choked voice. Victoire took his hand and squeezed it supportively. He gave her a faint smile, before turning to Remus and Tonks. 'Mum and Dad,' he said. 'That's the first time in my life I've been able to say that.'

* * *

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter and waited very patiently until I finally got this up - remember to review again!**


	6. Meeting MadEye

**6**

**Meeting Mad-Eye**

'No!' Tonks cried softly.

Remus pulled her tighter into his chest. He rested his chin on top of her head as they both fought tears.

'H-how?' Tonks asked, her voice choked with tears. She lifted her head slightly.

Teddy couldn't answer. Albus replied, 'The Second War. Fighting, like Fred.'

'I was a month old,' Teddy whispered.

Wiping her eyes, Tonks reached out an arm towards her son. Teddy didn't hesitate in walking over and embracing his parents. Victoire squeezed her husband's hand as he left her.

Teddy, Ginny and Mrs Weasley were the only ones crying quietly now. Everybody else seemed beyond tears. It surprised Harry that Ginny was still crying – he realised he'd never seen her cry before, and perhaps assumed that she simply didn't cry. But she did, when it concerned her family. Harry hadn't known Fred, or any of her brothers, had meant so much to her. He was learning more about her in these few minutes than he had in four years.

'I must make it, don't I?' Sirius asked, trying to ease the tension in the room. Or that would be his excuse if anybody asked. He knew deep down he was really trying to get over the fact that his last best friend was going to die. It was his way of covering up the tears in his eyes, because he couldn't go and comfort Remus at the moment. He needed his family. 'The world just wouldn't be right without m-me.' His voice cracked on the last word, and Sirius inwardly cursed himself.

His heart skipped a beat when he didn't get an answer immediately. 'I – I do, don't I?' he tried again uncertainly. 'Of course I do – I have to be there for – for Harry.' The silence from the time travellers was as good as an answer. That, and the fact Lily couldn't take it anymore and broke down. James hugged his little sister tightly. She was only thirteen; this had to be worse for her than everyone else, especially as she was close to Teddy and it hurt her to see him cry so much.

Tears didn't even come to Sirius' eyes. His gaze was fixed on his godson, who looked shellshocked.

'Harry?' Sirius said tentatively.

Harry's head snapped to his godfather. Cold anger flashed through his green eyes. 'You can't die!' he shouted. 'You can't! This is – this is all my fault, you can't die, you're the only one I've got left!'

'Harry, don't,' Sirius pleaded quietly. 'I'm here now. I'm here.' Without another word, he strode over to his godson and pulled him into a firm hug. By the time they pulled apart, everybody else had somewhat recovered. The Weasleys sat in one corner of the room around Fred, Remus, Tonks and Teddy sat together, Harry stayed with Sirius, and the future children were in their group in the middle of the room, having been joined by Victoire.

'Well,' Sirius said eventually, his voice gruff but strong, 'we can't sit here and mope all day.'

'I'll make some tea,' Victoire volunteered, jumping up, her blonde hair swishing behind her. Rose suppressed a giggle. Fluent in French she may be, but if there was one thing Victoire had learnt from her English grandmother, it was that when in doubt, make tea.

'I'll help you,' Bill offered, following her out of the room.

'So… Teddy seems like a good guy,' Bill said, as Victoire filled up the kettle and flicked her wand to start heating it up.

'He is,' Victoire smiled, before her eyes narrowed. 'We're not having a conversation about if he's good enough for me in which you play the role of the over-protective father, if that's what you're aiming for. Remember you're technically only two years older than me right now.'

Bill held up his hands in surrender. 'OK, OK,' he grinned, happy to be able to talk with his daughter. He did, after all, need something to take his mind off Fred. 'At least tell me he asked for my permission to marry you.'

'No, he most certainly did not!' Victoire said, and Bill was taken aback. 'He proposed to me a total of eighteen times, and he didn't ask your permission any of those times. That tradition is old-fashioned – it was considered 'proper' when women were practically owned by their fathers. In modern day England, in the wizarding world and the Muggle world, that tradition doesn't help at all in the development of independent young women who want a life of their own to choose. And Mum, Aunt Hermione and Rose agree with me.' She finished her speech, and was surprised to see Bill smirking. 'What?'

'You just reminded me so much of Fleur – er, your mother then,' Bill said, finding it strange to call Fleur the mother of his children but also pleased. He'd only known her a short time, but if there was one thing he'd learnt about her in that time, it was that she could be feisty, and clearly her daughter was just the same. _Must be the Veela genes, _Bill decided in his head.

'People say that all the time,' Victoire sighed.

'You don't like that?' Bill questioned.

The young woman shrugged. 'It's just hard sometimes, for all of us. I'm expected to be as perfect as Mum, because people think she's perfect. Dom's expected to be a tomboy, because she looks exactly like you and acts more like you. Louis is looked down on because he's somewhere in the middle. It's worse for James, Al, Lily, Rose and Hugo. Their parents are the members of the Golden Trio. Photographers for Witch Weekly and the Daily Prophet even used to camp out in their gardens trying to get pictures of them and Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Aunt Mione and Aunt Ginny.'

'I can understand, I would hate that,' Bill said. 'You're all expected to be like your famous parents.'

Victoire nodded. 'It's gotten better. I remember when I was little, and Teddy came round to Shell Cottage, and these photographers arrived out of nowhere. You and Mum were furious, and I didn't have a clue what was going on. It's not like that anymore – or at least it wasn't, until a few weeks ago.'

'What happened a few weeks ago?' Bill asked.

Victoire blushed. 'I can't say, sorry. It's really up to Rose…'

'What did Rose do?' Bill pressed. 'Come on, I'm interested now! I'm not letting it go.'

'And I thought you were the easier parent to handle,' Victoire shook her head, smiling. 'Alright, but you've got to promise not to tell anyone. _Anyone. _Understand? Or Rose will absolutely murder me.' She shivered at the very idea.

'I promise,' Bill said. 'I'm a curse breaker and I work with goblins, remember? There are a lot of things I have to keep secret – I'm good at that sort of thing.' He grinned at her.

'Fine,' Victoire said. She took a deep breath. 'Rose and Scorpius have sort of been dating for six months.'

Bill's jaw fell open. 'That Scorpius? In there?' He jabbed a finger towards the living room.

'Last time I checked, there weren't many Scorpiuses around,' Victoire said thoughtfully, before her expression darkened. 'James swears he had nothing to do with it, which usually means he had everything to do with it. All I know is that one morning, it was front-page news on Witch Weekly – the daughter of two thirds of the Golden Trio and a Malfoy dating. I can't believe they don't have anything better to do than gossip about people's personal and love lives,' the blonde scoffed. 'So as if that overreaction wasn't bad enough, Uncle Ron completely blew up at Rose, banned her from seeing Scorpius ever again and grounded her for the rest of her life.' She rolled her eyes, and a smirk appeared on her lips. 'He would have jumped straight in the Floo and gone to the Malfoys' to personally kill Scorpius if Aunt Hermione hadn't cast the full body-bind curse on him. According to Hugo it was hilarious,' Victoire giggled.

Bill gave a low whistle. 'Ron's not going to be happy.'

'You don't think?' Victoire said sarcastically. 'Yeah, that's why you can't tell him. Or anyone else. If we all want to get back to our own time alive, in one piece and mentally stable.'

'I've got it,' Bill agreed. An awkward silence fell between them. The click of the switch on the kettle flicking back to its usual place told them the water had finished heating up, and seemed to prompt Victoire to say something.

'Um, Da – Bill,' she began uncertainly, because it felt wrong calling him 'Dad' when he was barely older than her right now, 'about Fred…'

'I'm fine,' Bill cut her off, not looking at her but at the mugs she was now putting teabags in. 'I still have nearly three years left with him, don't I? And besides, I'm more worried about George.'

'Of course you are,' Victoire said softly. 'Look, you should know – it's hard for George in the future. Really hard, of course it is. But just because it's the most difficult thing in the world for him to handle right now, doesn't mean it can't be difficult for you either.'

'I know,' Bill said awkwardly. 'I'm fine, Victoire. I'll – I'll manage.'

Victoire grimaced. 'Oh, sorry. Guys don't like to talk about their feelings, do they? Can you fetch the milk?'

'Oh – right, yeah,' Bill said hastily, caught off-guard by the casual change of subject. _Must be a women's thing as well, _he thought, as he fetched the milk from the fridge.

Later that afternoon, Mad-Eye Moody arrived. After hearing news of their deaths, the people that concerned had been acting oddly upbeat. This, of course, was no surprise from Fred, Tonks or Sirius, but several people had been expecting Remus to sink into a dark, depressed state. Teddy for one was glad he hadn't. The last thing he wanted was for his dad to be moody and silent during the whole of his one opportunity to meet his parents. As it happened, everyone had been getting along as if it was almost a normal day. Though the awkwardness was still extremely noticeable, at least Rose and Ron had something to talk about.

'… and their tiny faces, just glaring at you, like they want to eat you,' Rose was saying, eyes wide and hands clutched together tightly. 'And why do they need eight legs, anyway? It's not natural.'

'Centipedes have one hundred legs, shouldn't you be more scared of them?' Albus called over, looking up from his conversation with Mrs Weasley.

'They don't always have one hundred legs,' James pointed out. When Rose and Albus looked at him oddly, he shrugged and said, 'Well, it depends how many you pull off.'

Lily had very quickly engaged Ginny in conversation about what was fashionable in the future, and how well the Holyhead Harpies were doing, while Ginny simply sat there and gaped at her. Hugo tuned out after a short while, becoming bored with the girly talk, and began a game of wizard's chess with Bill.

A faint _pop _was heard in the hallway. Mr Weasley sprang up and left the room, returning moments later with Mad-Eye Moody in tow. His electric blue eyes darted around, staring unnervingly at the eight visitors who immediately fell silent, and froze, even Teddy.

'What's this we've got here, then, Arthur?' the old Auror asked gruffly, as if something like this was all in a day's work for him.

'These are our time travellers, Mad-Eye,' Mr Weasley replied. 'They came from – when was it you said?'

'2022,' Victoire said.

'Yes, 2022. They got transported here by a necklace we think must be cursed, and these two –'

'Time travellers, you say?' Moody interrupted Mr Weasley, his magical eye focusing on Scorpius, who immediately shrunk back in his seat. 'Sure they're not Death Eaters?'

'No – Mad-Eye, I really think they are who they say they are,' Mr Weasley said.

'You can be sure of that, can you?' Moody questioned. His magical eye was still trained on Scorpius. ''Cause this one here looks a hell of a lot like a Malfoy.'

Scorpius' eyes narrowed, but he didn't dare say anything in front of Moody. Indeed, none of the time travellers seemed keen on offering their part of the story, especially whilst they were being accused of being Death Eaters. They, unlike the rest of the people in the room, had never met Mad-Eye Moody – and it showed in their faces.

'So?' Moody barked, making them all jump in their seats. 'Can you prove you aren't Death Eaters?' That was Mad-Eye Moody, straight to the point.

'Well – to be honest, do we _look _like Death Eaters?' Hugo said, his voice dripping in sarcasm. Everyone stared at him in surprise. Hugo had never dared to speak to anyone like that, especially to someone with as much authority as Moody. The old Auror simply glared at him.

'Funny, aren't you?' Moody growled. Hugo turned bright red. 'Let's see how amused you are when you're locked up in a cell in Azkaban.'

'Mad-Eye, relax!' Mr Weasley said exasperatedly. 'They're just kids.'

'Our kids,' Bill put in.

'Well, they certainly look like they could be,' Moody allowed, 'but is it really that hard to change your appearance or take Polyjuice Potion and alter it slightly? Many criminals have escaped the law that way, it's a clever method, just last month –'

'How many Death Eaters are Metamorphaguses?' Teddy cut in boldly, stopping Moody short of finishing a sentence in which he would explain how he outwitted yet another Dark Wizard.

Moody's eyes narrowed. 'A Metamorphagus, you say?'

Teddy changed his hair colour from black, through all the colours all the way down to pure white, before settling on turquoise again. 'How many Death Eaters have you caught that can do that?'

'You're –'

'My son,' Tonks said proudly, slipping into the kitchen from the hallway. She went to stand by Teddy, a beam on her face – it was if the exact thoughts running through her head constantly were, _I just heard that I'm going to die in a couple of years time but hell, I have a son and I marry the man I've just realised I'm starting to love! Might as well make the best of it! _It was a very Tonks-like response to the situation, and it was infectious.

'Nymphadora, I expected better of you,' Moody frowned, making his slightly mangled features look even more gruesome. 'Did I teach you nothing in your Auror training?'

'You taught me to trust my instincts, and this is me trusting my insticts,' Tonks replied defiantly. 'And don't call me Nymphadora.' At this, her hair turned crimson red.

Moody seemed slightly taken aback by his young Auror's answer, but years of practice covered this up. 'Well, you seem set on taking their word for it.'

'That's because it's the truth, Mad-Eye,' Tonks said. 'But if you want more proof, I'm sure they can give it. Right?' She smiled at the eight time travellers.

'Uh – sure,' Albus said uncertainly. He cleared his throat to make his voice stronger. 'I mean, yes sir. What do you want to know?'

'Tell me something that only your parents would know – at this point in time,' Moody requested, adding this last part in a tone that suggested he still didn't believe they were time travellers.

The eight people from the future looked at each other, silently trying to decide who should speak up. James shrugged and said, in his usual cocky, confident voice, 'I know that Mum – that's Ginny – was possessed by her diary in her first year, and I know that it was kept from the public and everyone else, so how else could I know apart from being related to her?'

As soon as he said this, Ginny's eyes took on a haunted look, and her brothers and parents all paled. Lily groaned and put her head in her hands. 'Sensitive as ever, James.' His cousins were glaring at him. Scorpius frowned – he hadn't known about this. Then again, why would he? It wasn't as if his family had been involved…

'Word gets around You-Know-Who's followers, you'd be surprised,' Moody said, dismissing James who immediately looked deflated, his arrogance vanquished. 'Not good enough.'

'I know,' Albus said quietly. 'When Dad – Harry – looked into the Mirror of Erised, he saw his mum first and then his dad, and nine other people who were part of the Potter or Evans families.'

Harry stared at Albus in shock. How could he know that? Only Ron and Dumbledore even _knew _about the mirror, didn't they?

'How did you know that?' Victoire asked. 'I've never even heard of the Mirror of Erised.'

'Er – well, I sort of went into Dad's pensieve,' Albus said sheepishly. Bill nodded slightly to himself. Of course, a pensieve. A memory like that wasn't something you were likely to forget.

'Wow, Al,' James breathed. 'I had no idea you were such a rebel.'

'I was eight, I didn't know what it was!' Albus protested. 'And – well, that's it. That's what I saw.'

'He's right,' Harry said. 'I noticed my mum first, then my dad, and there were nine other people standing behind them.'

'And Dad saw himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain,' Rose said randomly. She blushed. 'Just, erm, putting that out there.'

'Mad-Eye, judging by Harry's face, they're telling the truth,' Remus said.

Moody grunted, never one to admit he was wrong. 'Well, well,' he mused. 'What are we going to do with you?'

* * *

**AN: So, after I posted the last chapter, I checked my emails after I got home from school to find I had 16 new reviews and an onslaught of story alerts/favourite story/author alerts, and I got a couple more reviews in the next few days. Thanks guys! I was surprised I got such good feedback, I thought I was really bad at writing emotional scenes. I mean, I'm bad with crying people in real life. Whenever one of my friends is crying, I'm just like, 'Um, okay... yeah... anything wrong? No, sorry, didn't want to make you cry harder, that was my fault... *cough*... um... do you want a Jaffa Cake?' Anyone else like that? xD Next chapter up on either Saturday or Sunday... not sure, because I have a French project due Monday I haven't even started (I don't even see why we have to learn French, I'm sure if you just speak English in a French accent, it would suffice. 'Ou est le toilet? Je suis desperate.') and I'm doing a charity event at school where you have to stay awake all night, tomorrow night, and I'm beginning to regret signing up... I probably won't make it till 3am, which is why I will most likely be SLEEPING all through Saturday! **

**ANYHOO, please review! Oh, and just a few things:**

**AveryMalfoy123: This is 1995, the summer before Harry's fifth year. The kids arrived the day Harry went to his hearing at the Ministry, that was mentioned in the first chapter.**

**Insane Potter Maniac: I'm not sure what you mean by a 'bit too obvious'. The point is, Teddy has never known his parents - he's not going to be very good at hiding his emotions when he sees his parents for the first time in his life. I know I'd find it hard to keep a poker face when it's something as big as that.**

**Blood of the Dawn: Lol, sorry, I am doing Rose/Scorpius. I'm the opposite to you - I love Scorrose, cliche as they may be, and absolutely DETEST Scorpius/Lily. Sorry!**


	7. A Bloody Day

**AN: Hello, you lucky people! You weren't going to get a new chapter until tomorrow, because this one's been slow in writing, but I'm off school sick today so I managed to finish it and post it :)**

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**7**

**A Bloody Day**

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing how to get the eight time travellers back to their own time. It was agreed that it would be a long process, perhaps taking several weeks, as it wasn't as simple as a broken time turner. They were no closer to finding out what this ancient curse on the necklace and the jewellery box was, or who could have cast the curses on them. They were so many questions to be answered, nobody knew where to start. The Auror who'd been sent to France to check up on the jewellery box had reported back to the Order, telling them that the box was missing from everywhere they searched there as well – Fleur Delacour's house where she lived with her parents, her grandparent's houses, previous homes and businesses. They'd even searched Beauxbatons for it, somehow managing to get past Madame Maxime's security. This meant they didn't have any means of investigating the objects further – they only had the cursed versions. Several people were even willing to agree that the necklace and the jewellery box simply didn't exist in 1995, but nobody saw how that would work, since they were both antiques.

All this took them up to half past nine at night. The people from the future were flagging; they'd been through quite an ordeal in the space of one day, as had everybody else, and it was decided by Mrs Weasley that they, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George were to go upstairs and get an early night ('And no arguments!').

Rose, Lily and Victoire were put in Hermione and Ginny's room, Hugo and James were sharing with Harry and Ron, and Albus and Scorpius bagged a room to themselves that was actually quite clean. Teddy stayed up a while longer with the adults (Victoire had been ready to fall asleep on her feet, so she'd gone upstairs instead of staying with her husband) and finally fell asleep on the couch in the living room, with Remus and Tonks crashing with him as well. By midnight, the house was still and silent.

**. . . / * \ . . .**

Ron opened his eyes wearily, and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. **2:27am. **Throwing the covers back, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He crept out of the room as silently as his lanky figure would allow. Shameless snoring was coming from the direction of James and Hugo's beds.

Walking down the hallway, Ron headed towards the bathroom, shivering in the cold as goosebumps prickled on his bare arms. A thin sliver of yellow light fell on the carpet as he approached the bathroom. Someone was in there. The door was slightly ajar, and Ron could see a brown-haired boy standing at the sink.

'Hugo?' he whispered, pushing the door open. Hugo whipped round, and visibly relaxed when he saw Ron. 'You ok?'

'Hi,' he whispered back. 'I'm fine.'

'What are you doing up?' Ron asked.

'Nothing,' Hugo said; Ron noticed he was covering up his nose.

'OK then,' he shrugged. 'D'you mind –'

'Oh, yeah. Night,' Hugo said, slipping past Ron out of the bathroom. As he passed by him, Ron noticed a thin trickle of blood seeping through the fingers clutching Hugo's nose.

Ron just shook his head, and locked the door. _Poor kid, _he thought, _I'd hate to get a nosebleed in the middle of the night._

**. . . / * \ . . .**

The next morning nearly everybody was up at a reasonable time. As the clock struck 10:00am, the only ones still not up were Ron, Hugo, James and Scorpius.

'Go and get them up, would you, dears?' Mrs Weasley asked. 'I don't want them missing breakfast…'

'They wouldn't survive the day without breakfast,' Victoire said, pretending to be horrorstruck, but it really was the truth.

Fred, George and Ginny decided it would be _hilarious _to wake Ron up using his greatest fear. 'RON, THERE'S A SPIDER ON YOUR HEAD!' the twins yelled in his ear, while Ginny made her fingers crawl across his face like a spider. Ron shot up and shrieked – yes, shrieked, like a girl – 'WHERETHESPIDERGO?' and fell of his bed. Hugo and James sat up groggily.

'Whu goon un?' James asked, his words incomprehensible. He saw Ron on the floor, groaning in pain, and cracked a smile. It didn't matter why he was down there, just the fact that he was in pain seemed to be hilarious to James.

In Al and Scorpius' room, Scorpius wasn't even snoring. He was completely and utterly dead to the world – in fact, if someone who didn't know any better walked in they'd think he _was _dead. That fact that he was extremely pale and you could hardly see him breathe when he was sleeping didn't help. James and Fred had started a rumour that Scorpius was a vampire in Scorpius' third year at Hogwarts. There were many jokes that amused them no end that nobody else really got.

Albus and Rose tiptoed into Scorpius' room, not that there was any need for it, and on the count of three, ripped back the duvet that covered the lump they supposed was Scorpius. A whoosh of freezing cold air followed this, and Rose had to stifle her giggles at the sight of Scorpius lying there in his bright green boxers. **(AN: Yum… lol. And yes, I've decided Scorpius wears bright green boxers. Deal with it.)**

Albus glanced at his cousin, rolled his eyes, and threw the duvet back over Scorpius again before she could do anymore ogling. The pair began hitting him with his own pillows, taking turns to whack his face.

'Ow – ouch!' they heard eventually, after about five minutes of this. 'My _face! _My nose! You're gonna bruise it! Who is that?'

'Morning!' Al said cheerfully.

'Nice boxers,' Rose giggled. 'Very macho.'

Scorpius shrunk under the covers so only his eyes and the top of his head were visible, and the strands of platinum blonde hair sticking up randomly. 'What the bloody hell did you need to do that for?'

'We didn't need to,' Al grinned, and they both left the room quickly, leaving a fuming Scorpius alone.

When everybody was finally downstairs and had eaten, Mr Weasley, Tonks and Bill hurried off to work, and Remus to do something for the Order. Discussion soon turned to what they were going to do today.

'Quidditch,' most people suggested, but as they weren't anywhere near a Quidditch pitch and Sirius wasn't allowed out of the house, that was out of the question.

'How about we all help with –' Mrs Weasley started, but was cut off by her son.

'No cleaning, Mum,' Fred said. 'I found out yesterday I'm going to die, do you really want me to waste a few precious days on cleaning a house that will never be clean even if we use Kreacher's head as a toiletbrush?'

Mrs Weasley burst into tears. Fred's face fell as he realised what he'd said. 'Oh – no, Mum, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that - I didn't think – Mum, please don't cry.' Fred awkwardly tried to comfort his mother, who only sobbed harder at the reminder that her son was going to die.

It took ten minutes to console Mrs Weasley, though nobody really felt as upbeat as they had done just a little while ago.

'Will Mum and Dad be missing us back home?' Lily asked suddenly.

James frowned. 'Wouldn't time just kind of, stop, for them? Until we get back or until… we catch up with our normal time.'

Teddy nodded. 'I think James is right.'

Everyone stared at him like he'd grown an extra head and was doing the Irish jig.

'Well, he _might_ be,' Teddy reasoned, and everybody breathed audible sighs of relief, at which James huffed. The world wasn't going to end, after all. 'Either time is frozen for them, or they're going ballistic as we speak. It depends on the curse, I would think.'

'Does anyone have a mobile phone on them?' Rose asked. Scorpius looked at her oddly.

'A _what?' _he repeated.

'It's a Muggle device,' she explained hastily. 'Vic's got one and so have Hugo and I.'

'I want one, but Mum doesn't trust them,' Lily complained, looking pointedly at Ginny. The girl in question looked bewildered, eyes wide.

'I'm not your mum yet, remember?' she reminded Lily. Lily made a 'harrumph' noise and crossed her arms – this obviously was not a good enough excuse. Rose giggled.

'I haven't got mine on me,' Victoire said, patting her jeans and checking her pockets.

'Neither have I,' Rose said.

'I do,' Hugo said, producing his slim black phone. Scorpius regarded it with caution, as if it might explode any second. 'Although, to be honest, I don't know if it's _possible _to get a signal twenty-odd years in the past… in a house surrounded by magic… which is actually hidden from sight.'

'Just try it, Hugo,' Albus sighed impatiently.

'I'll call Dad, he'll shout less,' Hugo decided wisely. 'Mum will probably throw a fit and end up in St Mungo's, or something.' He had forgotten Hermione and Ron were in the room. The latter glanced at Hermione, who avoided his eyes. It was strange to be talked about like this.

Hugo held the phone to his ear once he'd chosen 'Dad' from his contacts list, confusing Scorpius even more ('Are you supposed to talk through your _ear?'_). Half a minute later, he shook his head. 'Doesn't even recognise the number,' he told the group.

'To be honest, I would have been surprised if it had worked,' Teddy shrugged. 'We can only hope that they don't know we're gone.'

'Teddy…' Lily said slowly. 'We're not going to be stuck here forever, are we?'

'Course not, Lilyflower,' Teddy reassured her, managing a smile that seemed to put her at ease. He exchanged a look with Victoire, and her eyes widened as she realised that Teddy didn't have a clue what they were going to do.

'Right, well, we just need something to take our minds off this,' Mrs Weasley said as brightly as she could. 'It's a lovely day, after all!' People glanced towards the window above the sink, which was blacked out. A thin sliver of natural light fell through it, but that was it.

'Quidditch!' James said immediately.

'James, we've already said, we can't play Quidditch, we don't have the space,' Teddy sighed irritably.

'We could,' Hermione said suddenly. 'If we… yes… that might work…'

'Hello?' Ron waved his hand in front of her face. Her eyes snapped back to him.

'I was just thinking we could enlarge one of the bigger rooms – isn't there that massive spare room on the third floor? – and transform it into a Quidditch pitch,' Hermione explained. 'But do you really want to play Quidditch _that _much?'

'Yes!' James exclaimed. 'I'm suffering from… Quidditch-withdrawal.'

'Really?' Rose asked in a concerned voice. 'That sounds serious. Maybe we should take you to St Mungo's, where there are conveniently no Quidditch pitches or broomsticks within sight, and have them drop a Quaffle on your head multiple times to knock some sense into you.'

James glared. 'It _is _serious!' he protested, turning to everyone else. 'Aren't I right?'

Harry, Ron, Sirius, Fred and George nodded their agreement. Ginny looked genuinely torn, while everyone else rolled their eyes. They all (save for Hermione and Victoire) loved Quidditch, but James was… well, obsessed.

'Right, well, let's turn this house into a Quidditch pitch!' Sirius said eagerly.

'We can't keep it like that, Sirius,' Hermione pointed out.

'I know,' Sirius scowled. 'But it's been ages since I played. I'd die to get on a broom again.'

'Well, I think we should at least wait until Mr Weasley, Bill, Remus and Tonks get back,' Hermione said. 'We can't do magic, anyway, we're underage.'

So the rest of the day was spent cleaning Grimmauld Place – Mrs Weasley wasn't letting them get off on that one – but with the arrival of the eight time travellers, it was actually fun for once. It was the perfect opportunity to just talk and for the 1995 people to get to know their future kids and what life was like – what all their friends did, what happened to their teachers and so on. They had enough sense not to ask awkward questions. It was an odd moment when Albus revealed that Voldemort was defeated – a mixture between elation and sadness, because while it was the best news anybody had heard in a very long time, especially after the events of fourth year, and they had been expecting it, they also now knew the costs of the war and their victory.

Mr Weasley, Remus and Bill got back mid-afternoon. Tonks had been held back at work. After James had explained (begged) their Quidditch pitch idea, Mr Weasley and Bill had been all for it, but Remus wasn't so excited.

'Do you know how absurd that is?' he tried to tell Sirius. 'And where are we going to get so many broomsticks from? And equipment? And _why bother?'_

But seeing how excited his best friend was to finally play Quidditch again, Remus gave in. The magic required to turn the biggest spare room into a Quidditch pitch (a small version, of course) was complicated and advanced, but between them, the adults managed to produce a temporary pitch that was perfectly capable of being played on. Harry had his Firebolt with him in his room, but everyone else had to have conjured-up broomsticks. They weren't amazing brooms, but then again, they had literally appeared from thin air. Sirius found an old set of Quidditch balls in the attic, and sooner than anyone expected, they were all set up to play.

The team captains were, after much arguing and shouting, chosen as Bill and Rose. Rose played Keeper, and she chose Fred and George as her Beaters, Scorpius, Lily and Ginny as her Chasers and Harry as her Seeker.

'Rose!' Albus gaped at her, looking deepy offended. 'I feel betrayed! I'm your best friend!'

'Yeah, but Uncle Harry's the one with the Firebolt,' she shrugged, causing everyone to crack up.

This left Bill, who was playing Chaser, with Remus and James as his other two Chasers, Ron as his Keeper, Albus as his Seeker and Hugo, Sirius and Teddy as his Beaters, as they had one too many people.

'Wait, our team is all guys,' Hugo said. 'I say we swap James for Lily.'

'No! No way is James corrupting my team!' Rose cried.

'Fine, have it your way,' Hugo said, 'but don't throw a tantrum when we win.'

'Hugo!' Rose yelled. 'Take that back right now! If that was intended to be sexist, I swear I will –'

'Let's play,' Bill said quickly. Victoire, Hermione and Mr Weasley, who were sitting on the sidelines looking bored already (or Victoire and Hermione were) looked at them.

'One, two, three, blast off – I mean, go! Or fly – or something,' Victoire called, looking confused.

'That'll do, Vic!' Teddy grinned, as the fifteen players shot up into the air on their brooms. Ron and Rose flew to the hoops on either end of the mini pitch, and the rest circled the pitch. Hermione, Mr Weasley and Victoire – after much struggling – released all the balls and went to sit back down and watch the game.

'And it's Ginny away with the Quaffle!' Victoire shouted. 'She's speeding towards Ron – pass to Lily – wow, they do look really similair. It's going to be hard to keep track. Anyway, Lily still has the Quaffle – James dives in from above her and snatches it from her. James Potter now with the Quaffle – or in possession of it, or something…'

While Victoire struggled with her barely adequate Quidditch vocabulary, James was flying towards Rose, dodging Ginny, Lily and Scorpius with three quick turns. Before anyone had time to react, James had crashed headfirst into Rose and neatly put the Quaffle through the hoop.

'JAMES SIRIUS POTTER!' Victoire shrieked. 'I saw that! When we get home, Aunt Hermione and your mother will be hearing about this! And that goal didn't count, by the way – is it a goal? Is that what it's called?'

Rose was making some rather interesting hand gestures at James, and Scorpius was yelling at him.

'Back to the game!' Mr Weasley said hurriedly.

Rose's team were awarded a penalty for James' foul. Ginny took it, putting it neatly past Ron through the left hoop.

'10-0 to Rose's team!' Victoire shouted.

In the next five minutes, Ginny scored once more, Lily once and Scorpius twice. It was now 50-0 to Rose's team. Bill's team were losing badly already.

'And it's James with the Quaffle, Potter speeds up the field – please don't try to kill Rose again, James, attempted murder never looks good to a potential employer – and he scores! Fifty-ten to Rose's team! Er – Teddy – what are you doing? Oh, Teddy, are you _sure _you want to play? I really think it would be safer for everyone if you didn't.'

After ten minutes and more ruthless but excellent flying from James, Rose's team still led ninety-sixty. 'Fred, George, NO ASSUALTING THE CHASER! Did Rose tell you to do that? AND NO ATTACKING THE KEEPER EITHER!'

Ginny sped past Remus and before he could blink, the Quaffle had vanished from his arms. Ginny put one past Ron again, but only ten seconds later Bill scored past Rose, then again, then again. It was now one hundred-ninety. Hugo whacked a Bludger in Scorpius' direction, and the Quaffle he'd been flying towards just slipped through of his fingers, giving Bill a perfect chance to snatch it. He scored the fourth goal in a row, making the score one hundred-one hundred.

'Wait – is that the snitch?' Victoire asked suddenly. 'It is – it's the snitch, and Harry's seen it! Harry Potter's after the snitch! Oh – sorry, Harry, shouldn't have said hat… no, Al, he's making a bogus dive! Don't fall for it! Turn around! Oh, crap.'

Harry and Albus were now hot on the heels of the Snitch, both constantly overtaking each other.

'It's a game of cat and mouse now,' Victoire was shouting. 'Come on, Uncle Harry! I mean, sorry, Al, Dad - I just want Rose's team to win – Harry's caught the Snitch! Or is that Albus? I can't see from over here, they look exactly the same!'

A few seconds later, someone shot up into the air, holding the Snitch in their fist. Now Victoire could see the broom properly. It was a Firebolt.

'HARRY POTTER'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!' she yelled. 'ROSE'S TEAM WINS! Bad luck, Al – wait, what's wrong with Lily?'

Lily wasn't concentrating on her flying – she was slowly falling to the ground. A couple of people flew to help her. Once on the ground, Victoire, Hermione, and Mr Weasley rushed over to them.

'What's wrong?' Hermione demanded.

'She's bleeding,' Ginny said breathlessly, one arm around the girl's shoulders. 'Quite a bit.' Lily's hand was covering her nose, and blood was seeping out of it. It wasn't gushing out, but still, it looked to be a fair amount.

'James hit her,' Albus accused angrily. The other players were landing now and coming over to see what was wrong.

'I didn't hit her on purpose!' James protested, looking genuinely scared for his little sister. 'It was an accident, and it wasn't even that hard, I swear!'

'I don't care,' Albus scowled. 'Lily's hurt, and it's your fault, accident or not.'

Victoire had gone very pale. 'Blood…' she said slowly, staring at Lily. 'Need to… go…'

She ran from the huge room, and Teddy grimaced. 'Sorry, she hates blood,' he apologised on behalf of his wife, and jogged after her to see if she was alright.

If the vomiting noises they heard in the distance were any indication, she really wasn't.

**

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**AN: I really need to decide whether to put my ANs at the top or the bottom of the chapter. Thanks for the reviews and the alerts and favourites! If you do alert or favourite or both but you haven't left a review yet, would you please be kind enough to do so? I'm looking at you... yes... .THERE. Review or feel my wrath!**


	8. Purple Royalty, Gold Wealth & Red Blood

**AN: Hi! Thank you for all your reviews - they made me smile a lot while I was feeling all pukey and sick on Tuesday xD It's a shorter chapter this time, sorry. I couldn't think of a way to lengthen it. I'll try to make the next chapter extra long :) I spilt coffee all over my bedroom floor an hour ago. It looks like there's been an explosion on my floor now and there's an... interesting odour in my room.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, never will. -sigh-**

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**8**

**Purple Royalty, Gold Wealth and Red Blood**

Everybody was silent.

All eyes were fixed on the two boys in the middle of the room, a chessboard between them. Ron sat opposite Hugo, both of them focused completely on the game, glancing at each other now and then. Ron was contemplating his next move carefully, while Hugo was weighing up the positions of each piece on the board. Eventually, Ron moved his knight to claim Hugo's pawn. In return, Hugo simply moved one of his pawns closer to Ron's King. Several moves later, with Hugo's pieces creeping up on Ron's King, Hugo moved his last pawn forward a space and said, 'Checkmate.'

Ron scowled, seeing he had nowhere to move his King to. 'You win,' he muttered reluctantly. Hugo smirked slightly.

'Bad luck, mate.' Harry clapped Ron on the shoulder.

'You're losing your touch, Ronnie,' Ginny grinned.

'I must've taught him well, that's all,' Ron reasoned to Harry, as if he was trying to convince him. Harry nodded understandingly, while Hermione hid her laughter.

'Of course, Ron,' she said kindly. 'Because everyone knows you're a wonderful teacher, what with all that patience you have.'

Ron glared at her, as Ginny giggled.

'I picked it up really quickly, Dad didn't really need patience,' Hugo shrugged. 'But I still won.'

'Don't worry, though, Hugo can only beat you half the time in the future,' Rose assured Ron, who was only slightly cheered up by this.

It was the next day after their Quidditch match. Lily was perfectly fine (which was just as well for Victoire) and, because they were all bored, they'd decided to see how Ron fared against Hugo in a chess match. Yes, that was how bored they were – they were willing to sit down and watch a game of chess.

'Rematch tomorrow?' Ron asked Hugo.

'You're on,' Hugo smiled.

'Hey, has anybody seen James, Fred or George recently?' Victoire asked suddenly.

'I haven't seen them since breakfast,' Scorpius said.

'Me neither,' Teddy said, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

'Crap,' Rose said suddenly – Al and Scorpius looked at her in surprise, as Rose rarely swore, even mildly.

'They're dead,' Victoire announced suddenly. 'I don't know what they've done but they're dead.'

**. . . / * \ . . .**

'We weren't doing anything, we swear!' Fred protested from his seat in between George and James. He turned to Rose and Lily with doe eyes. 'You two lovely nieces of mine believe me, don't you?'

This was a mistake. 'Don't try that with us,' Rose warned, narrowing her eyes at him and looking so much like Hermione when she did so that Fred shrunk back slightly. Fred Weasley was scared of Hermione Granger, and it was a fact that no one would ever find out. Now he was scared of her daughter, too.

'We know James, and we know Fred the Second, and we know that when they disappear for three hours it can mean nothing good or legal,' Lily hissed. 'So it only stands that you two should be the same.'

'And given that you three just happened to disappear for three hours, it's logical to think that whatever you did in those three hours isn't anymore good or legal than what James and Fred do,' Victoire said.

'Oh, great, cornered by the three worst Weasley girls out of all my cousins,' James muttered quietly.

Not quietly enough. 'I heard that,' Rose snapped.

They were gathered in Fred and George's bedroom, after bursting in unannounced, because they had no time to waste. Really, they should have known better, because the three boys could have been doing anything. That involved booby traps or explosives. They now had Fred, George and James sat on one of the beds, but nobody had found any evidence of a prank in the making. Either they were still in the planning stages, or they'd managed to hide all the evidence when they heard people coming.

'So are you going to spill the beans?' Lily questioned. 'Or are we going to have to do this the hard way?'

'I would just admit it,' Scorpius advised from behind the three girls.

'No one asked your opinion, Junior Ferret,' Ron said; partly because he was still holding a grudge towards Scorpius for no reason and partly because he wanted to watch his brothers suffer some more.

'Ron,' Hermione said sharply. 'Remember what we said? You were either going to speak to Scorpius nicely, or not at all.'

Ron scowled. 'Yes, Mother,' he sighed. Hugo snorted.

'We weren't doing anything. Promise,' James said. 'Look around you. Search the whole room if you must. Do you see anything suspicious?'

Everyone except Rose, Lily and Victoire looked around the room one more time, because the three females didn't trust the boys enough to take their eyes off them.

'There really is nothing, Rosie,' Albus said. 'Let's just go. While I admit it's highly likely these three are up to something, we don't know for sure. You, Lily and Vic can play detective inspectors later.'

'Dodecagon what?' Lily and Victoire repeated, but Rose just folded her arms.

'Fine,' she said huffily. 'But I'm on to you three.'

'I don't doubt you are, Rosie-Posie!' James called as the group traipsed out the room. She slammed the door in response to him calling her that.

'Kids, are you up there?' Mrs Weasley's voice carried up the stairs. 'Can you come downstairs for a moment?'

James, Fred and George emerged from their room and followed everyone else downstairs into the dining room. Mrs Weasley was bustling around, making tea. Mr Weasley, Bill, Sirius, Tonks and Remus were at the dining room, joined by Kingsley Shacklebolt and Severus Snape.

Kingsley managed not to gawp at the time travellers as they entered the room – actually, he managed it more successfully than most people had thus far, with the exception of Snape, whose expression remained unreadable. This Albus was quite impressed by. If eight people from the future had just walked into a room he was in and they all looked very much like people he didn't harbour particularly fond feelings towards, he would be more than a little shocked. But Snape wasn't letting it show.

Kingsley smiled warmly at the large group. 'Good afternoon. Mad-Eye has filled me in on everything I need to know – I have to say, I haven't dealt with anything quite like this in all my years of working as an Auror.' His smile was easy and warm – in other words, exactly the same as it was in the future, though he was more lined in the future.

Snape just nodded curtly to them, like it pained him to do so. One of the boys looked exactly like Potter, and there were a couple of obvious Weasley look-a-likes. _Wonderful, _he thought. _More Potters and Weasleys. The future obviously isn't bright._

The time travellers introduced themselves quickly to Kingsley and Snape – well, to Kingsley, because Snape wasn't listening and could care less about them – and when it was Al's turn, he shot a quick look towards the Potions professor.

'And I'm Albus Severus Potter,' he said, teeth gritted. It would have come out eventually, anyway.

Snape's head snapped to him. 'Excuse me?' he said in a choked voice.

'You heard, _sir,' _Albus replied stiffly. He did not wish to repeat the words and he wasn't overly impressed by the coldness of the man he'd been named after. Once again, for what must have been the two-hundred-and-sixty-seventh time in his life, he wondered if his dad had been drunk when he'd named him.

Snape didn't even say anything, just looked at the boy, mouth slightly open, with an odd expression on his face.

'I stick by what I said two days ago,' Ron said to Harry in a low voice. 'You must be mental in the future.'

'Shut up,' Harry muttered. This was all highly embarrassing for him. He couldn't even explain himself, after all!

'Potter,' Snape said suddenly, his lip curling. 'I can honestly say now that I do not wish to have my name shared with _any_ miserable Potter, if you'd bear that in mind for the future.'

Albus and James growled, and Lily's eyes flared with anger. Rose's hand flew to her best friend's arm. 'Not now,' she whispered, in a barely audible voice, her grip tight.

'Rose – he just insulted our family –' Albus was glaring at the greasy-haired man, who looked back calmly.

'I know, but now's not the time to get worked up,' Rose breathed.

'Can't believe I'm named after that – that slimy git,' Al hissed, sounding like he'd just tasted something nasty.

'Relax, Al!' Rose urged him irritably. 'For the last time, not right now.'

'Severus, please,' Remus appealed, noting that Sirius' fists were clenched and Harry wasn't handling the smooth, quick insult any better. 'I think it would be best if you and Kingsley shared your information and were on your way.'

'Of course, Remus,' Kingsley said, his slow, deep, calming voice seeming to put everyone at ease. He addressed everyone in the room, as Mrs Weasley placed a cup of tea in front of him. 'We believe we may have had some progress with the necklace. It's not set it stone, but there's a high possibility we're right.'

'What is it?' Sirius pressed.

Kingsley turned to Sirius. 'We believe the necklace may be connected to the Black family.'

Sirius stared at him.

'Kingsley,' he gawped at him, 'it may not have occurred to you, but putting a time-travelling curse on pieces of jewellery wasn't exactly a Black family tradition, or our style. Our style was cutting the heads off old house elves and sticking them on the wall.'

'Don't say something like that so casually Sirius, house-elves are –' Hermione started, but Ron cut her off.

'Not now, Hermione,' he muttered.

'No, I think what Kingsley's saying is very likely,' Remus said thoughtfully. 'Sirius, do you remember the colours of the necklace?'

'I remember it had gold… and some purple…' Sirius seemed to be straining his memory. Remus rolled his eyes.

'The chain was gold, and the jewels were amethysts and rubies. Gold, purple and red,' he said.

Realisation dawned on Sirius. 'The Black family colours,' he said.

'Red and gold? Why would your ancestors choose Gryffindor colours as the Black family colours?' Hermione asked. 'I thought they were all very… erm, Slytherin.'

'They were, through and through,' Sirius grimaced bitterly. 'But even I don't know how old the Black family is. They could've been around since before Hogwarts and the four houses were founded – I've never really cared enough to find out. Purple is supposed to be the colour of royalty – I can see why any arrogant Pureblood family qould choose that colour. Gold, obviously to imply wealth. Red… that could represent blood and how pure the Blacks' is supposed to be.'

Sirius had been finished with his speech for a few moments before he noticed everyone was staring at him. 'What? I'm not totally clueless.'

'Sirius has hit the nail on the head,' Remus said, managing not to sound surprised at his best friend.

'He did what?' Ron frowned.

'It's a Muggle phrase,' Hermione explained quickly. 'It means he got it spot on.'

'He put a spot on what?' Ron was even more confused now. Hermione groaned. This could go on for a while, so she didn't even reply.

'In short, Ron,' Remus said, looking mildly amused, 'We think Sirius is right. For once,' he added jokingly.

'What are you talking about? I'm always right. People just don't appreciate me,' Sirius said arrogantly.

'If we could get back to the issue at hand,' Snape drawled, looking bored out of his mind.

'Of course,' Kingsley said. 'So we have reason to believe the curse-caster was a Black ancestor. Or, at least, someone of so-called 'pure blood'.'

'What if he's not an ancestor?' Harry asked suddenly. 'What if he's alive right now?'

'Or she,' Hermione, Ginny, Rose, Victoire and Lily felt it necessary to put in.

'I'm the only Black left, Harry,' Sirius reminded me. 'All my cousins are married off… _oh.'_

'My mother wouldn't do something like that,' Tonks said immediately.

'I second that,' Teddy agreed. 'Grandma's the best.'

'Did my mum look after you?' Tonks asked suddenly, diverted from the topic for a moment. 'When I… you know…'

'Yeah, Grandma brought me up. You don't need to worry, Mum,' Teddy smiled at her. 'I had Grandma and Harry and Ginny and all the Weasleys. And now I have Victoire.' Teddy reached for said girl's hand. Victoire beamed at him. Tonks' smile was small and sincere. She was truly happy for her son, and proud of him too, but she couldn't help feeling a twinge of selfish regret that she was never there. After all, she hardly mattered. What mattered was that Teddy was happy right now. And Tonks could see that he was, especially with Victoire.

The moment was ruined by James stage-whispering, 'I might vomit very violently over all three of them.' followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh as Rose smacked his arm for being an 'insensitive git'.

'No, it's alright, we know Andromeda wouldn't do that,' Sirius smiled slightly. 'Bellatrix is powerful, but this isn't really her style and wouldn't even occur to her anyway. Narcissa… I can't see her reason for doing it. To be honest, I can't see that anyone would have a reason for doing something like this.'

'I think that's what we need to focus on right now,' Bill said. 'Not the possible suspects, because it could be anyone, if we're being realistic. We need to work out the motives behind this.'

'Isn't it obvious?' Hugo said slowly. All heads turned towards him, and he looked slightly uncomfortable at the sudden attention. 'Well… erm… wouldn't they – whoever cast the curse – want to send us back in time… to change the future?'

It suddenly made sense to everyone then.

'Which means we know one thing for certain,' Hermione said. 'The caster of the spell, whoever they are, good or bad, is from the future. And probably alive now.'

'But that's the thing,' Ginny sighed. 'They could be anyone, even somebody that we know, and we still don't know whether they had good or bad intentions.'

'And until we do know,' Albus said, 'we're in more trouble than we first thought.'

* * *

**AN: Aaah, I'm sad because I have to change my calendar over tomorrow and this is the last day of having Draco on my wall... ****Some of you in the reviews are on the right track about the blood... there was one thing nobody picked up on, but I'm not saying what it was :P All will be revealed! To be honest with you, I don't have a completed plan for this story yet. Does that fill you with hope for this story? Thought not! xD Ah well... please review! Or I will stand outside your window like a creepy stalker, wherever you are in the world, and throw rubber ducks and clay pigeons at your window until you review. **

**- Random side note: Fanfiction.n has a Bible section! What the hell? **

**- Random side note 2: I manage to piss off three of my friends in the space of 10 minutes today. HAPPY DAAAYYYS!**

**- Random side note 3: Does anyone have any good ideas for April Fools Day tomorrow? I suck at coming up with pranks for Gred and Forge's birthday, and I was thinking I could piss my friends off even more. :P**

**OK, I'm going now! **


	9. Red Stains On The Kitchen Tiles

**AN: Hi! First of all: I'M REALLY SORRY! I'm aware it's been a week and a half since I last updated. This was going to be posted yesterday, but, erm, I don't really have any good excuses except that I was watching Glee... and then Mamma Mia... and it sort of got too late at night xD But, Chapter 9 is here now, never fear! Do you like my title, by the way? Haha, I really need to come up with better chapter titles. Mine are pure poop. And on that note, here you go!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own. Pfft, obviously.**

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9

Red Stains On The Kitchen Tiles

'Please, Rose.'

'No.'

'Please.'

'No.'

'Please.'

'No.'

'Please.'

'NO!'

'Why not?'

'Because I said so.'

'Why not?'

'Malfoy, the puppy-dog eyes don't work on me.'

'Ah, you're back to Malfoy now, mate.'

'Shut up Potter. Please, Rosie. I'll make you chocolate cake. No, even better – I'll _buy _you chocolate cake, to save us all the explosions.'

Rose was momentarily distracted from Scorpius' begging. 'Explosions?'

'Remember the rhubarb crumble incident of third year?' Al reminded her, smirking.

'Oh, yes,' she giggled, before glaring at Scorpius. 'That put me off rhubarb crumble for life.'

'Sorry, Rose,' Scorpius apologised, not even sure why he was doing so.

The three were currently in Al and Scorpius' bedroom. Rose was sat cross-legged on Scorpius' bed, Scorpius on his knees at her feet. Al stood near his bed, arms folded, an amused half-smile on his face. It was three days since Kingsley and Snape had visited, and they'd gotten nowhere. Unless Sirius had some long-lost third cousin five times removed that hadn't been added to the Black family tree, there really wasn't anyone that would have the means, the motives _and _the correct age to have cast the curse.

'Scorpius, I'm sorry, I'm not telling everyone that we're dating yet,' Rose said apologetically, her expression softening. 'Shouldn't _you_ be the one reluctant to tell a house full of Weasleys and Order members that we're going out?'

Scorpius grimaced. 'When you put it like that, it sounds like suicide,' he said thoughtfully. 'Rose, I just figured that if we tell them now, their reactions will be better than if we tell them later. Or worse, if they find out from somebody other than us.' He looked pointedly at Al, who held his hands up.

'I wouldn't betray my two best friends like that!' he insisted defensively. 'Actually, it's more like I don't want to see a repeat of what Uncle Ron did when he found out about you two in our time. That was truly scary.'

Scorpius obviously hadn't thought of that. 'OK, Rose, I'm terrified of your dad. But everyone else –'

'Aww, is ickle Scorpy scared of big bad Ron Weasley?' Rose teased, grinning widely. Scorpius just glared at her, his cheeks turning faintly pink.

'I just meant… oh, what the hell am I saying? I'm older than he is now! He can't hurt me! And everyone else will be a pushover. Just please, please, Rose, let's tell them,' Scorpius pleaded with his girlfriend, taking her hands in his like they were about to do something very brave and very dangerous.

'Now's not the time, Scorpius,' Rose argued.

'Rose. Rosie. Just listen to me. I'm going to spell this out very slowly.' Scorpius sounded as if he was talking to a very slow five-year-old. 'If. We. Tell. Family. Now. We. Get. Off. Easier. If. Someone. Else. Tells. Family. Now. We. Die. Very. Slowly. And. Painfully.'

'I thought Al was the sucker for melodramatics?' Rose asked faintly, though she was beginning to come round to the idea. It might have had something to do with the fact that Scorpius' thumb was now stroking the back of her hand. He could get her to agree to anything when he did that. She had no idea why. 'Scorpius Malfoy, you are the craziest person I have ever met. And I have met a lot of crazy people. But I suppose you're right. I mean, some of them might even admire you for having the guts to be the one to announce it. And I think a few people are starting to get suspicious.'

'Thank you, Rose! I knew you cared about me!' Scorpius exclaimed, grinning. 'Now I'm almost guaranteed to live a longer life than I first anticipated when we started going out!' Rose squeaked in surprise when he pressed his lips to hers and snogged her. _Seems I was __**definitely **__wrong about Al being the one for melodramatics, _she thought, before kissing him back.

'Uh… I'll just… go now…' Al coughed awkwardly, before making an expression of utter disgust and slipping from the room.

Scorpius kissed Rose deeper, his hands on her waist pulling her closer to his body, her arms around his neck. Rose's fingers began to tangle in his pale blonde hair and Scorpius slipped his tongue into her mouth. She responded eagerly, moaning slightly as they deepened the kiss even further…

'Sorry to break up this mothers' meeting, but Mum needs you to – _what the hell?'_

Rose and Scorpius sprang apart, staring at the person in the doorway, immense guilt written all over their faces. Rose had promptly flushed the infamous Weasley red.

George Weasley was standing in the doorway, a look of horror on his face. Rose thought vaguely that it _might _be because he'd just walked in on his niece and the junior ferret snogging passionately.

Or that might be just her.

**. . . / * \ . . .**

George kept shooting looks at Rose and Scorpius over dinner. Both Bill and Victoire noticed this, and Bill raised his eyebrows at Scorpius while Victoire gave the pair of them a knowing smile. Al just glanced between the five of them nervously, wondering if they knew, and Lily and the rest of the future teenagers caught on eventually which Ginny and Hermione picked up on. Mrs Weasley narrowed her eyes at her daughter, glancing at Lily then at Rose, following her grandchildren's gazes, and Fred was trying in vain to silently ask his twin what was going on. Soon, the whole table had descended into silence with everybody communicating by fleeting looks, frowns, and odd facial expressions.

Of course, the only three people oblivious to all this were Harry, Ron and Sirius.

As they were nearing the end of their meal of shepherd's pie, Fred slammed his fork down, causing all eyes to snap to him in shock. Ron had a forkful of mashed potato halfway to his mouth. 'What's going on?' he demanded.

Most of the table immediately looked down at their food again guiltily. Ginny folded her arms and acquired the Mrs Weasley look she was becoming a master at. 'Yes, what _is _going on?'

Harry, Ron and Sirius still looked bewildered. 'I'm confused,' Harry muttered to Ron. The redhead nodded in agreement.

'Anything you want to share, Ginny?' Sirius asked uncertainly.

'No, but I think _they_ have something to share,' she said pointedly, raising her eyebrows at the eight time travellers. She turned her gaze on Lily, who was sat next to her. Lily coughed and fiddled with her hair awkwardly, twirling it around her finger. Ginny had a sudden impatient-parent urge to slap her hand gently away, which slightly scared her for a moment.

'Do you have something to say, dear?' Mrs Weasley asked Lily a little more gently.

Lily's eyes strayed towards Rose, who gave the slightest shake of her head. Hermione, however, noticed it. Rose had the unfortunate timing to look up at Hermione right at that moment, and their eyes locked. Hermione glanced sideways at Scorpius, then back to Rose – and it clicked. A nearly unnoticeable nod and pleading look from Rose confirmed her suspicions.

Ginny, practically hearing the cogs whirring in her friend's brain, demanded 'What?' very impatiently again. 'Will somebody just tell me what's going on already?'

James grinned then – and as soon as Rose saw that grin, she knew that whatever was about to come out of James' mouth wasn't going to be good.

'Rose is pregnant,' he announced, beaming as if it was the best news in the world. Rose gaped at him. She had not been expecting that.

The table completely and utterly erupted. A few glasses smashed on the floor as people leapt to their feet or dropped them in horror. Albus nearly toppled backwards off his chair. All the women looked gobsmacked, while the men, once they'd gotten over their initial shock, looked positively murderous.

'WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?' Ron and Scorpius yelled at the same time, scrambling to get up. Rose wanted to sink into the floor, through the many layers of the earth until she reached the inner core, where she could melt and very happily no longer exist…

Lily and Victoire were almost screaming questions at her; Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Ginny were both, for once, speechless, seemingly unable to find the right words to say; Al, Ron and Teddy and Hugo looked like they were more than ready to gather up weapons and hunt down the man who made Rose pregnant; Scorpius was staring at Rose as if he'd never seen her before; James sat back looking gleeful; and the rest just didn't know what to say or think.

Rose opened her mouth multiple times to try and say something, but she was always cut off by Lily or Victoire, or somebody else shouting. 'I'm not – let me –' she tried to shout, but was drowned out by the sheer noise of horror that was ripping around the table.

'I'M NOT PREGNANT!' she screamed at the top of her voice, having had enough of this. 'Why won't anyone listen to me?'

Everyone fell silent. Rose stared round at them all with disbelief written on her face. 'Did you really believe James when he said that?'

Ron flushed bright red, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly while glaring at James. 'Er – I don't know, I mean – is there any more shepherd's pie?'

Rose sat down and started eating again, glaring daggers at James who looked as if Christmas had come early, due to Rose's humiliation and everybody's reactions. Gradually, people began to mutter and apologise, and James got a few whacks on the arm, though that didn't wipe the grin off his face. He knew full well Rose was going to make him pay later.

After everyone had more or less settled down, James decided to open his mouth again. Rose groaned. Did this infuriating boy never take a day off?

'Actually, we do have something else to confess,' James grinned, sending a victorious, taunting smirk in Rose and Scorpius' direction. Everyone went quiet again, glancing at the eight time travellers in something close to terror.

'Gosh, you're not pregnant too, are you James?' Lily asked sweetly.

Needless to say, James never got to spill Rose and Scorpius' secret that dinner time. He was far too busy wallowing in a taste of his own medicine.

**. . . / * \ . . .**

Later that evening, Rose and Hermione volunteered to do the washing up. As Hermione was scrubbing a plate, she said to her daughter, 'You and Scorpius, Rose?'

'Please don't disapprove,' Rose begged, taking the plate and drying it before putting it away.

'I don't think I can – you're older than me at this particular moment, it would look strange,' Hermione shrugged. Rose laughed.

'Does that mean you're alright with it?' she asked nervously.

Hermione sighed. 'This whole thing is still odd to me. I found out a few days ago that I had two children and was married to Ron – I mean, your dad. It even sounds weird to say that.'

'But you're glad you can say that?' Rose pressed, smiling slightly. 'Oh, Merlin, don't tell me you're not, that would be horrifically awkward…'

'I am glad, don't worry! I marry Ron.' Hermione was practically beaming, then she blushed. 'Is he still a git in the future?'

'An even bigger one, I think,' Rose grinned. 'And I'm telling him you asked me that.'

'Don't you dare, Rose!' Hermione exclaimed shrilly, pointing a fork at her threateningly. Rose stared at the fork, and it was when she went cross-eyed that they both broke out into laughter. Once they started, they couldn't stop. Rose vaguely wondered what her dad would say if he knew that him being a git was the cause of their hilarity.

'I haven't laughed so much in a long time!' Hermione managed to choke out eventually. Bubbles from the water had splashed everywhere, coating the two girls. It was true: to Rose, her mum wasn't like this very often. 'There's Ginny, but I don't see her as much as I see Harry and Ron. I'm with them most of the time.'

Rose nodded in agreement. 'I'm closest to Lily, and I get along with Victoire and Roxanne the most as well, but Al and Scorp take up most of my time. I don't get much time for hanging out with girls.'

'You're like me,' Hermione said.

'A lot of people say that,' Rose said quietly.

'You don't like being compared to anyone,' Hermione stated, as if it was fact. She wasn't hurt; she understood how Rose felt. If she was being constantly compared to her parents, she'd crack under the pressure.

'None of us do,' Rose admitted.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by Rose's yelp of pain. 'Ouch!' she shrieked, louder than necessary.

'What? What happened?' Hermione asked, dropping the bowl she was washing up.

'I just stabbed myself with a fork,' Rose muttered sheepishly, inspecting the palm of her hand. A bead of blood had surfaced there. 'Can you -?'

'Oh, yes, of course.' Hermione crossed the kitchen and started rifling through the cupboards for a plaster.

'Er – Mum? We're in a wizard household,' Rose reminded her. 'There won't be any plasters.'

Hermione blushed. 'Oh. I'll go get Mrs Weasley – I can't do underage magic.'

Rose rolled her eyes as Hermione left. She glanced back down at her palm – and squeaked in alarm. Yes, squeaked.

There was a steady trickle of blood oozing out the wound, which Rose was sure had been so tiny it was barely there. She watched in horror as the trickle grew larger, until it was running down her arm and dripping off. She began to feel faint… she was losing too much blood… where was Hermione? Where was Mrs Weasley? Where was anybody?

Rose tried in vain to stem the bleeding, but the thick, scarlet liquid simply pushed past her shaking fingers and continued on. The wound was still tiny, barely a dot on her hand. How could she bleed so much from one place? A pool of blood was now forming around her feet from the droplets that were dripping off her arm, quicker and quicker… blood running faster and faster… keep breathing, keep breathing… where was help?

The dizziness got too much for Rose, and as the world went black around her, she collapsed onto the kitchen floor, her own red blood staining the tiles around her.

* * *

**AN: I bet you hate me. We came this close to reading about Ron's reaction to Rose and Scorpius. Bahaha, you'll just have to wait. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT.1 COMES OUT ON DVD TOMORROW! I'm so excited I could pee myself! I last saw it about 4 months ago. I think I must have watched the other movies about 50 times each since then. I hope it arrives tomorrow, and not Tuesday... anyhoo! Please review, and DON'T add to story alerts/favourites without reviewing!**


	10. Conversations

**AN: Hi hi! I love the feeling you get when you wake up in the morning and you realise it's the holidays. I just got that randomly this morning :D I feel really happy today, I don't know why. It might be something to do with the fact that I bought high-waisted shorts today, and they are so cool, and I'm wearing them right now with my baggy horse shirt and I feel like an American cowgirl. :P**

**Before we go any further, I'd like to thank LunaxNight for her review in particular - it made me smile so much I thought my face was going to split in half! So you can thank her for this being up today :) Now, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Bear with... bear with..._ bear with_... nope, don't own anything. Except my new high-waisted shorts. I can't get over how cool they are.**

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**10**

**Conversations**

'Rose?'

'Rosie?'

'Rosie-Posie Roly-Poly?'

'Shut up, James.'

'Rose, you're awake!'

'No, I'm talking in my sleep.'

'No, you're not.'

'Well, obviously not, James!' A bleary-eyed Rose tried to sit up on… the couch? 'Where am I? What happened?'

'You collapsed in the kitchen, remember, Rose?' Al was sitting on the armrest by Rose's head, peering down at her. 'You collapsed because you… lost too much blood.'

'Lost too much blood?' Rose repeated, trying to sit up again. She settled herself awkwardly on the old couch. 'Why would I lose too much blood? What did I do?'

'You don't remember?' Al paled. The whole thing had been awful, he didn't want to have to explain it all again.

'No. At least, not yet… what happened?' Rose looked round at the other people in the room. Scorpius was knelt beside her, looking rather stiff, as if he'd been there a long time without moving. Lily was sat on the armrest at the other end of the couch, by her feet, and Hugo was sat on the floor leaning against the couch. Everybody else – Teddy, Victoire, James, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George – was scattered around the room. 'How long was I out?'

'The whole night,' Lily replied. 'It's just gone midday.'

It was then that Rose finally noticed the bandage wrapped tightly around her hand, making it impossible for her to move her fingers. 'Oh,' she murmured, remembering finally. Al nodded, looking sick again. Rose managed a weak smile. 'It wasn't that horrific, was it?'

'It kind of was,' Hugo grimaced. 'Scorpius found you just after you collapsed, then Mum and Grandma came, and Aunt Ginny. They managed to… sort you out, mostly, between them, but you… you wouldn't stop… wouldn't stop _bleeding…' _Rose could see quite clearly how troubled Hugo was by his face, and realised how helpless he must have felt, seeing his sister like that, but not being able to do anything… 'Rose, honestly, I'm so glad you're alright.'

'Course I am, Hugo,' Rose said softly, unable to speak very strongly. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stabbed myself with that fork. Clumsy old me.'

'It wasn't your fault, it was mine,' Hermione said. She looked quite relieved that Rose was awake. 'I should have gotten Mrs Weasley quicker. I had no idea what was happening to you…'

'It's nobody's fault,' Scorpius said stiffly. His eyes never left Rose's face. 'We don't know what's happening, but it isn't because of us.'

'What – what do you mean?' Rose asked. 'You don't know what's happening?'

Hugo sighed. 'Rose – remember when James hit Lily at the end of the Quidditch game a few days ago?'

'Accidentally,' James put in.

'Whatever,' Hugo frowned. 'Point is, James really didn't hit her very hard, at all. And yet… she was still bleeding, a lot.'

'And the night you got a nosebleed,' Ron said to Hugo. 'That wasn't just a nosebleed, was it?'

Hugo shook his head. 'No. That was much worse than a normal nosebleed.'

'Oh,' Rose gasped, catching on. 'The bleeding. It's part of the curse.'

'Yes,' Victoire said quietly. 'And what's even scarier is that so far, the bleeding's been caused by something. Lily getting hit, Hugo getting a nosebleed, you with the fork. We don't know how long it is until… until the bleeding starts for no reason.'

'You mean, we could start bleeding at any moment?' Al asked for confirmation. He was white as a sheet now. 'Without warning?'

'That's exactly what I mean,' Victoire nodded.

Everybody in the room, even the twins, looked quite pale now, especially the eight time travellers. Some looked a little sick.

'Look on the bright side,' Fred tried to joke weakly. 'At least the kitchen floor is a rather more vivid colour now.'

The corner of George's mouth twitched. Ginny threw a look that clearly said, 'Really? Right now?' in their direction.

Rose groaned, lying back on the couch. The room had started to spin. 'Rose? Are you okay?' Scorpius asked immediately.

'Yeah,' she replied faintly. 'Just need to close my eyes for a bit.'

At that moment, Mrs Weasley bustled into the room and, seeing that Rose was awake, shepherded everyone out the room so she could fuss over her. Scorpius gave Rose's hand a squeeze before he was the last to be shoved out the room.

**. . ./ * \. . .**

'Harry.' As everyone else pushed past them, heading upstairs or into the dining room, Ginny was by Harry's side. 'I need to talk to you.'

Apparently Harry didn't get a say in the matter, as Ginny pushed him through a door he hadn't noticed was there before. The room they were in now wasn't any different to most of the other rooms in the house: everything about it was old and dirty and generally looked like it hadn't been touched in a very long time. It was also devoid of furniture, except from a couple of tables, boxes and odd-looking objects here and there.

'I can't take this anymore,' Ginny began boldly.

Harry stared at her. Her arms were folded, and she stood about a metre away from him, looking very determined. 'Er – what?'

'You know what,' Ginny told him. Harry grimaced, realising where this was going. 'Ever since James, Albus, Lily and the rest of them arrived, we haven't been able to look at each other without blushing and pretending we weren't looking at each other.'

Harry was sure that this was the most she'd ever said to him in four years. He was also surprised by how blunt she was being – and embarrassed that it was all true. 'I'm sorry, Ginny. It's just –'

'You can't stop thinking of me as Ron's little sister?' Ginny interrupted him. 'Because that's all I've been for four years. I know we don't know each other very well, because I've always been too shy to speak to you.' Harry thought that Ginny must be making up for all those years she hardly said two words to him, because she seemed to be trying to get a lot off her chest right now.

'Ginny, that's exactly what it is,' Harry said. 'I don't know you very well. And that's not a bad thing,' he added quickly, becoming slightly panicked at Ginny's crestfallen expression. 'It's… erm, well, I mean, I want to get to know you better. Yeah, that's it.'

This had to be the most awkward conversation he'd ever been part of. It didn't seem to matter to Ginny, though – she brightened up immediately. 'Really?' she said, before blushing. 'I'm sorry. I just needed to get all that out. It was driving me insane.'

'No, it's fine,' Harry assured her.

'Right,' she nodded.

An uncomfortable silence fell between them, in which they looked around the room at anything but each other. Ginny was mortified. What if this conversation had just made things more awkward for them? Here she was, spilling out all her pent-up frustration over the last few days to him, saying twice as much to him as she'd said in the past four years put together. She realised Harry didn't know her at all, and now neither of them knew where to start. Oh, Merlin, what had she done?

Harry, meanwhile, didn't know what to think. He was glad Ginny had finally come out of her shell around him – but what did he say now? The fourteen-year-old standing in front of him was the girl he was going to marry in the future and have three children with, and he barely knew her – and their children were now living in the same house as them! And there was another thing: she was fourteen. Harry had turned fifteen only a few weeks ago. They could hardly go around acting as a couple, and yet they were both uncomfortably aware of the fact that they were married in the future with three kids. That was a lot for a fourteen – and fifteen – year-old to cope with.

'Look, I know we're going to have to be Obliviated when James, Albus and Lily and the others go back to their own time,' Ginny said eventually, 'and after we are you'll just go back to thinking of me as Ron's little sister, and I'll go back to hardly being able to talk to you. But while they're here, which might be for a while still, we at least need to be comfortable around each other.'

Harry nodded. 'I agree,' he said, wishing for this conversation to be over as soon as possible. They just got more self-conscious as it went on.

'Good,' Ginny said, a look of relief crossing her face. She brushed her red hair over her shoulder; Harry couldn't help noticing for the first time that she had lovely hair. 'Friends?' She held out her hand, looking slightly nervous.

'We were always friends,' Harry replied, taking her hand but not shaking it. Ginny blushed a furious red, and Harry wondered if he'd gone too far. He dropped her hand immediately as if burned, feeling terribly embarrassed once again. He guessed this was just going to take a lot of getting used to.

'Right,' Ginny said, giving him a funny little half-smile. 'Good. That's good. Er – I'll just -'

'Oh yeah.' Harry stepped to the side to let her past. They reached for the door handle at the same time, and Ginny blushed again, letting Harry open the door. She didn't move, expecting Harry to walk through first. When he didn't, and she'd only just realised he was holding the door open for her, they both laughed a little too loudly, before Ginny stepped through the door.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Harry followed her out.

**. . ./ * \. . .**

At the same time Ginny had pushed Harry into that room, Hermione had grabbed Ron's arm and yanked him into the room across the corridor.

'Hermione – what are you doing – ow!'

'We need to talk, Ronald,' Hermione stated firmly. Apparently Ron didn't get a choice in the matter – just like Harry.

'I'd rather not, Hermione,' Ron tried to say. 'I've got to go and – polish my broom –'

'You haven't got a broom here, Ron,' Hermione said.

'Harry's broom,' Ron said quickly. 'I meant Harry's broom.'

'Stop making excuses, Ronald Weasley!' Hermione snapped impatiently.

'I wasn't making excuses!' he protested, holding his hands up. He sighed, recognising defeat. 'What is it?'

'We need to talk. About us,' Hermione told him. 'Ginny's having the same conversation with Harry.'

'You two planned this?' Ron asked, and Hermione nodded. 'Hey, I'd much rather my best mate didn't go anywhere near my sister –'

'Actually, it's your sister going near your best mate, and you're not her minder, Ron,' Hermione admonished. 'Oh, relax. They're not doing anything. Trust me.'

Ron scowled. 'Fine. But if I see them – holding hands or something, underneath the table…'

'They won't be doing anything like that, Ron,' Hermione said exasperatedly. 'Honestly, could you have more faith in them? Harry's your best friend, remember? He'd never dream of even touching Ginny without consulting you first. And he doesn't feel that way about her – yet.'

'Fine,' Ron said again. 'But what are we talking about?'

'Us,' Hermione said. 'I already told you that.'

Ron flushed at the word 'us'. 'But… I mean, what about us?'

'Well, Ron, we've just found out that we're married in the future, and have a daughter and a son, and we haven't even talked about it. Don't you think we should?' Hermione questioned, raising her eyebrows.

'I suppose,' Ron shrugged. He wasn't able to look at her properly without blushing. She had more guts that him, that was for sure.

Hermione bit her lip, looking uncharacteristically unsure. 'Ron, what do you think we should do? We can't carry on like this. We can barely talk to each other, we're so embarrassed.'

Ron sighed. He should tell her how he felt. Why not now? If he was going to tell her, now was the best time to do it. But what if she rejected him? What if he ruined things between them? What if they wouldn't even be able to be in the same room as each other, let alone talk to each other?

_Come on, Weasley. Where's that Gryffindor courage of yours? _Hermione was staring at him, chewing a fingernail nervously. Her brown eyes silently asked for an answer. He had to tell her. If it all went wrong – well, didn't Teddy say they would be Obliviated once he and the others left? So it would all go back to normal in a few weeks tops, whatever happened.

'Ron?' Hermione asked again.

Ron looked up at her. It was now or never. Well, never for the time being. 'Hermione, listen. I… uh, like you. A lot.'

Hermione frowned. 'Of course you do. We're best friends.'

'No, I mean, as more than a friend.'

'Well, obviously. You wouldn't marry me otherwise, would you?'

Ron resisted the urge to curse. Why was she making this so bloody difficult?

'No… Hermione, I mean, not in the future. As in, I like you more than a friend… now.' There. He'd said it.

Hermione stared at him. 'Oh.'

'Yeah,' said Ron uncomfortably, beginning to regret his confession.

'Well, I… I guess that would explain the whole Yule Ball scene last year,' Hermione said slowly. 'And the whole thing with Krum.'

Ron didn't say anything.

'Ginny was right, after all. And I didn't believe her! Oh, Ron…'

Bloody hell. He'd blown it. 'Hermione, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said –'

'Yes you should,' Hermione interrupted. 'Ron, I'm glad you said it! Do you really mean it?'

Ron nodded, staring fixedly at the wall opposite.

'Ron, why didn't you say sooner?'

The redhead looked up at her in surprise. 'You mean – you –'

'I feel the same way,' Hermione nodded.

'Well – why didn't you say anything?' Ron asked.

'You should have said something first,' Hermione retorted.

'No, you should have, you know what I'm like!' Ron argued.

Hermione started to laugh. Ron stared at her like she was mental. 'Oh – I'm sorry – but some things are never going to change, are they? We're always going to be bickering constantly.'

He saw her reason for laughing then, and began to chuckle as well. 'Yeah. I guess you're right.'

The bushy-haired girl smiled up at him, a little shyly. Hermione, shy? Where did this come from? 'So… where do we go from here?'

'Uh – I don't know.' They were back to being uncomfortable again. 'I mean, do you want to…?'

'Go out?' Hermione supplied, before nodding. 'Yes. Even if it is only for a little while before we're Obliviated.'

'And I go back to being a git,' Ron said regretfully. Why had he waited this long?

'You'll always be a git, Ron,' Hermione smiled fondly.

'Oi!' Ron complained, before grinning. On a high, he decided he was feeling brave, and stepped towards Hermione with his arms open. She stepped into him, and he wrapped her in a hug.

'Finally!'

The pair sprang apart as the door burst open, and Ginny, Harry, Fred, George, Hugo and Lily spilled into the room. Ginny was positively beaming as if Christmas had come early.

'Were you all listening?' Hermione asked incredulously, already blushing nearly as red as Ron.

'Only for about half the conversation,' Ginny shrugged. 'You two don't half take your time, do you? I don't think I've ever listened to a more awkward conversation, and I just talked to Harry.'

Hermione felt she should be angrier, but with the beam Ginny had plastered on her face, she couldn't bring herself to be very cross. The look the twins were giving her and Ron made her apprehensive, though, and she knew they weren't going to hear the end of it for a while.

* * *

**AN: Does anyone else like the song 'Soldier's Poem' by Muse? I've fallen in love with it :) I'M GOING TO SEE PALOMA FAITH SING IN JULY! I'm so excited, I had to tell you!**

**Review, please, for Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione's awkwardness! ^^**


	11. Good News?

**AN: OVER 100 REVIEWS! I LOVE YOU GUYS! :D *hugs***

**You should feel very special! I typed all this up today, just for you! I got through Muse's old album three times, Pixie Lott's album twice and half an Easter egg by the time it was finished! I'm going overboard on the exclamation marks! Yeah, I've got this typed up to publish today because I'm out all day tomorrow at a theme park with my friends, and then I'm off to Rome with my family on Thursday, until Monday. We have to get up at 4.30am on Thursday... -.-**

**Disclaimer: I own everything. Haha, April Fools! ... on the 19th of April...**

* * *

**11**

**Good News?**

'So, tell me everything. What's Victoire like? How long have you two been in love? Are there any grandkids on the way?' Tonks' grin was infectious as she plonked herself on the kitchen counter. Teddy was making coffee for himself and his mum, as everybody else had disappeared around the house somewhere. Tonks had excused herself from work early in the hope of talking to her son some more.

Teddy chuckled. 'Grandkids? Slow down! I mean… I want children, sooner rather than later if I'm being honest. But I don't think Vic's ready. Whenever I bring up the subject, she starts talking about something else.' Tonks frowned at this. It seemed like Teddy was hiding something. 'And you know what Vic's like, you've known her for the past few days,' he pointed out, pouring boiling water in two mugs and adding milk.

Tonks shrugged. 'I know, but I want to hear about her from you,' she said.

'OK, then,' Teddy said, dropping the teaspoon in the sink and handing Tonks a mug. He leaned against the counter, cradling his mug in his hands. 'We've been best friends since I was four, and she was three, though Fleur and Grandma keep saying we've been inseparable since Vic was born.'

'Ah, Fleur the terrifying mother-in-law,' Tonks teased. 'I hope Victoire doesn't find me scary.'

'Course she doesn't, she thinks you're great!' Teddy assured her, and Tonks beamed. It was nice to hear that her son's wife liked her. 'Actually, it's her dad who scares me more.'

'Bill's a softie at heart,' Tonks smiled, and Teddy grimaced. 'My mum looks after you, then?'

'She's brilliant,' Teddy nodded. 'Harry and Ginny are too, and Mrs Weasley. It's like having four parents.'

Tonks smiled. 'I'm glad,' she said more quietly, glancing down.

'I miss you so much, though,' Teddy said. 'I didn't have any memories of you until now, but I've still missed you my whole life. I never had any real parents. This is amazing, to me.'

'I'm sorry,' Tonks whispered, and then she was hugging Teddy, the mugs of coffee sitting forgotten on the counter. 'I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry for leaving you…'

Teddy hugged his mother back just as tightly, squeezing his eyes tight shut in an effort to keep the tears back. He never wanted to let go. He just wanted to stay here in his mother's embrace, for as long as he could, for as long as they could both hold on.

'It's not your fault,' Teddy insisted, his voice hoarse. 'It's not your fault, Mum… I swear it's not your fault… Bellatrix Lestrange got what she deserved.'

'My aunt?' Tonks asked in surprise. 'I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. She hates me almost as much as she hates Sirius.' She gave a half-hearted chuckle. Teddy didn't smile.

The Auror pulled away, studying her son's face intently. 'Hey, come on. If we only have a week or so left together at the most, I don't want to spend it moping around. And I'm so happy that we do have that time. I get to see my son all grown up, eh?' She ruffled his hair. Teddy chuckled. It felt odd, being that she was younger than him right now, but he liked the simple gesture all the same.

'Teddy!' a frantic voice called from upstairs. Both Metamorphaguses frowned.

'Isn't that –' Tonks started.

'Victoire,' Teddy said, and he was out of the kitchen and hurtling up the stairs before Tonks could blink. Or change her hair into an anxious brown colour.

Teddy found his wife in the only usable bathroom, throwing up what looked like everything she'd eaten that day. Trying to push down his gag reflex, Teddy scooped her hair back for her and rubbed her back, calmly speaking soothing words to her. This was the second time she'd been sick in a matter of days. Was this another effect of the curse, like the bleeding?

'Ssh, ssh… it's alright, Vic, it's ok… get it all out…' Teddy had to clap his hand over his mouth and turn away after a short while. He was one of those people who got the instant urge to vomit as soon as he smelled sick.

When Victoire was done, Teddy helped clean her up, and pulled her into a hug. She was white, and still trembling all over. 'Are you alright now?' he asked softly into her hair. She nodded against his chest. 'Come on, let's get you downstairs… get you some water…'

He kept a hold of her as they descended the stairs and went into the kitchen. Tonks was still there. As soon as she saw her daughter-in-law, she hurried to fill a glass of water and place it in front of Victoire.

'Thank you,' Victoire said in a shaky voice, holding the glass between both hands. No sooner had she taken a sip than she quickly set the glass back down again, nearly sloshing water all over the table, and covered her mouth and nose with her hand. 'Has somebody been making coffee in here?'

'Yeah, us,' Teddy frowned, gesturing to the abandoned mugs of coffee on the counter. What did that have to do with anything? 'Why?'

'It smells rotten,' the blonde said, making a face. 'Oh, Merlin – it smells absolutely foul.'

Teddy and Tonks shared a confused glance, and Tonks got up again to empty the mugs and wash them of anything remotely coffee-like in smell. 'But Vic, you love coffee. What is it, four cups a day, on average? I've been trying to wean you off it if anything – has time-travel messed with your taste buds? Or, erm, smell buds…'

Tonks seemed to have realised something as Teddy was rambling. Her eyes widened as she took in Victoire's pale, unsteady appearance. 'Victoire? Can I have a word?' she asked gently.

The twenty-three year old looked confused, but agreed anyway, and the two women disappeared upstairs, leaving a naturally very confused Teddy standing in the kitchen alone.

**. . ./ * \. . .**

Upstairs in the first empty room they found, Tonks sat Victoire down in a rather creaky old chair.

'How many times have you felt sick recently?' the Metamorphagus questioned as softly as possible.

'Nearly every day,' Victoire admitted. 'But I've only been sick these two times, while we've been here.'

Tonks nodded. 'And how long have you been pregnant?'

Victoire's eyes widened. Her jaw dropped slightly as she stared at her mother-in-law. She'd gone pale all over again, for what was probably the third time that day. 'I – I –' And then she broke down into great, shaking sobs. Her curtain of hair hid her face as she cried uncontrollably into her hands. Tonks was quick to wrap her arms around the young woman and hug her tightly. Victoire gripped onto her and wept into her shoulder, knowing she was being loud enough to wake the dead but not caring one bit.

Several minutes passed before Victoire's sobs finally subsided, and she was strong enough to pull away from Tonks, a sniffling wreck. Her previously pale complexion was bright red due to the sobs that had been wracking her body, and she was in desperate need of a tissue. She folded her arms over her chest and took deep, quivering breaths as she sat back down, blue eyes still shining with tears. Tonks let her go.

'I'm s-s-sorry,' Victoire hiccupped, wiping her eyes and nose with her sleeve. 'It's all j-just a big m-mess…'

'Ssh, it's OK,' Tonks said softly, rubbing the young woman's arm comfortingly. 'Take your time. You've been waiting for a long time to tell somebody, haven't you?'

Victoire nodded. 'I don't know what to do,' she whispered. 'It's come at the worst possible time. What if the time-travel, or the curse –'

'Don't think about that now,' Tonks told her. 'You are the most important thing right now. Are you ready for looking after a baby?'

Victoire shook her head. 'No. I know Teddy really wants children, and I want to give that to him, but I just don't feel like I can cope… not for a couple more years… and I feel so guilty because of Teddy, and now when I'm actually pregnant I can't face telling him because I know he'll want it and I don't know if I do, and we'll end up fighting, and he might leave me…'

'Teddy would never leave you,' Tonks said firmly. 'I've only known him for a few days, but he's my son and I know he would never leave you, especially as you're pregnant with his child.'

'I hope not,' the blonde whispered. 'I really hope not.'

'He wouldn't,' Tonks insisted, surprised at the woman's attitude to this. Was she really this scared about having a baby? 'Victoire… why are you so scared?'

Victoire took a deep breath. 'Last year, before we got married… I… I got pregnant. It was… great, for four months. Then…' She looked as if she was about to burst into tears again. 'We were at The Burrow one Sunday, like every week. I was helping Grandma wash up while everyone else was outside. I think I was going to put a bowl in the cupboard, but when I turned round there was a chair leg sticking out further than the others. I was so _stupid. _I didn't notice it… and I tripped right over and f-fell…' Her voice was breaking again. 'I f-fell so hard onto the f-floor… and there was blood all over my jeans before I knew it… and T-Teddy was there, and my mum, and so many people were crowding me… but I didn't care, b-because I knew I'd l-lost the baby…'

She was in Tonks' arms again as she began to sob once more. 'I – I don't want it to happen again, I don't want to put myself or Teddy through that, I'm so scared that it'll happen again… what if I have another miscarriage and I just can't carry children? I can't face that, please, I can't face that…'

'You need to tell him,' was all Tonks said as she rubbed the crying woman's back. 'You need to tell him.'

'I know,' Victoire whispered, like she knew she was resigned to it before she'd even started telling her excuses. 'I know.'

**. . ./ * \. . .**

'Teddy.' Teddy hadn't even heard Victoire enter the kitchen. He noticed Tonks wasn't with her. 'Can I have a word?' She glanced over her husband's shoulder at Sirius, who was sitting at the kitchen table reading the latest issue of the 'Daily Prophet' Mr Weasley had brought from work for him. 'In private.'

'Er – sure,' Teddy nodded, letting Victoire pull him upstairs. Sirius looked up and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, making Teddy just roll his eyes at his childishness.

Victoire pulled him into a spare room. 'Teddy, I need to tell you something.'

'Er, okay, then,' he said. 'Hey, are you feeling OK now? What did my mum want –'

'Yes, yes, I'm fine,' Victoire interrupted. She seemed in some sort of rush. 'Forget about it. I need to tell you – oh, how do I say this? – Teddy, please don't… freak out, or anything.'

'You don't want a divorce, do you?' Teddy asked, looking panicked. 'Vic, I said I was sorry about the jewellery box –'

'I don't want a divorce!' Victoire snapped, louder than she'd meant. Damn, her hormones were kicking already. Sure enough, Teddy looked rather taken aback. 'I'm sorry. I just… don't know how to say this.'

'It can't be that hard,' Teddy said, his tone softening. 'What is it, Vic? Come on, spill the beans. You know I'll understand whatever it is.'

Victoire nodded, managing a brief, unsure sort of smile. 'Right. Well… oh, screw it. Teddy, I'm pregnant.'

Whatever Teddy had been expecting, it wasn't that.

'Say something,' Victoire pleaded, her voice not as strong as she would have liked. 'Teddy?'

'I – Victoire – I don't know what to say,' he whispered. Victoire's face fell. Then Teddy's face split into the widest grin she'd ever seen on him. 'Vic, that's brilliant! That's fantastic! Why didn't you want to tell me? Vic, I can't believe… we're having a baby! I'm going to be a dad. I'm going to be a dad!'

Victoire said nothing. Teddy didn't notice. 'This is amazing! Is this what my mum took you up here to ask you about? How long have you known? Is this why you've been sick?'

She nodded numbly. 'And why I didn't like the smell of coffee,' she whispered, still not meeting his eyes.

'Vic, this is great, wait until everyone hears – are you alright?' He seemed to be asking her this a lot today. She couldn't take it.

'No, I'm not alright!' she snapped. Teddy's grin faltered. 'I'm not alright, I'm not alright, I'm not alright!' Her voice steadily grew to a shriek as she repeated this, over and over again.

'Vicky –' Teddy reached a hand out to her, but she swiped it away.

'I'm not alright! I'm not alright!' she repeated. 'Why do you keep asking me that? Do I look alright?'

'Vic, what's the matter?' he asked softly.

'Nothing's the matter! I'm pregnant and we're stuck twenty-seven years in the past, why would anything be the matter?' Victoire yelled, tears springing to her eyes again.

'Vic, I thought you'd be happy.' But it was clear nothing Teddy said was going to help the situation, or calm the blonde part-Veela down.

'HAPPY?' she shrieked. 'Why would I be happy? I'm going crazy, do you know how long I've had to wait to tell you out of fear of what you'd say?'

'Why were you scared? You know I'd say I was happy –'

'Exactly! That's exactly why I didn't want to tell you! Because you'd be happy and want to keep it and I don't want to keep it! I don't want this baby, Teddy, not now!' Victoire realised she was going to hate herself for her stupid hormones later, but she couldn't stop herself.

'You – you don't want this baby?' Teddy was beginning to look upset now, and Victoire felt a twinge of guilt.

'I don't know, Teddy,' she sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. 'I don't know if I want it.'

'You just said you didn't.' His voice was so quiet she could barely hear it. This was how she knew he was about to blow. Whenever Teddy was angry, it was always the calm before the storm. The quiet before the screaming.

'Teddy – I didn't –'

'Has it ever occurred to you that I might want it?' he asked, his voice slowly rising. Victoire winced at the obvious hurt he was expressing. His hair was already turning an angry red, and his eyes were stormy. 'Has it ever occurred to you to ask me what I think?'

'I did, I've told you just now, haven't I?'

'You didn't ask me what I thought! You just came straight out with it and told me you didn't want it!'

'I didn't mean that, I just don't know if I want it yet – Teddy, that was the hormones and the stress speaking, I swear –'

'So you don't want the baby but you're happy to blame everything on the hormones and stress the baby brings? Stop making up excuses, this is all you!' Teddy was full on yelling now. Victoire knew she shouldn't argue with him when he was like this, but they both had horrific tempers, so she did the only thing she ever did in these situations – she yelled right back.

'This isn't all me, you were the one who got me pregnant! You were the one who caused all this!'

'Caused all what? You're not making any sense, Victoire, you never do! First you tell me you don't want the baby, then you tell me you don't know if you want it, then you try to pass everything you've said off as a result of your hormones! What the hell's going on in your mind, Victoire?'

'What going on in my mind? In my mind I'm going crazy, Teddy! I don't know what to think! This is confusing me more than it's confusing you! With the miscarriage last year –'

'YOU WEREN'T THE ONLY ONE HURT BY THAT, VICTOIRE! I WAS HURT TOO! I'M STILL HURTING!' They were right opposite each other now, screaming in each other's faces, both flushed from the effort.

'IT WASN'T A PICNIC FOR ME! I DON'T WANT TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN, TEDDY! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO FEEL YOUR CHILD DIE INSIDE YOU? DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE WHEN YOU THINK IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT? YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, TEDDY, ANYTHING!'

'I know what it's like to lose a child, even I didn't feel it!'

'BUT I DID, TEDDY! I FELT THAT CHILD DIE! I FELT THE BLOOD AND I KNEW IT WAS DYING! _INSIDE _ME! _INSIDE _MY BODY! Do you know what it's like carrying a baby round inside your body for months? Do you even care how much energy it takes up?'

'You were only four months pregnant!'

'Oh, of course, that means it didn't matter! That's all you men care about! You don't care how much we're put through, having to carry these children, you just care about us giving you a kid – and then we're the ones who have to look after them, more often that not –'

Victoire knew she'd gone too far, but she couldn't stop herself. She hated Teddy right now, she hated him!

Teddy was staring at her, eyes wide and full of pain, hurt and disbelief. 'How could you think that?' he whispered. 'How could you think I didn't care?'

'Teddy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of that.' Victoire's voice was breaking, tears flowing down her cheeks again. 'I know you care, I know it's not your fault – Teddy, please –'

'Do whatever the hell you want with your baby, Victoire,' he hissed. His words were so cold, it felt like they were freezing her inside and out, stopping her from being able to do or say anything. 'After all, it's not as if I care about my wife or my unborn child.'

'You don't mean that,' Victoire whimpered.

'I don't know, you decide! You already decided about how I felt about your first pregnancy.' And then he was gone, slamming the door behind him and leaving Victoire to crumple onto the floor, and cry.

* * *

**AN: :'( I nearly cried writing that chapter, and I was the one deciding what happened! I swear next chapter you'll find out more about the curse. I've been putting it off for too long XD But just to warn you again now, I won't be able to post the next chapter probably until NEXT weekend. Which is a really long way away, and I'm sorry, but we go back to school next Tuesday and exam time is coming up... :L I obviously won't be able to get any internet on my iPod in Rome, so when I get back on Monday afternoon I expect to see a hell of a lot of reviews for this chapter...! So read and review, my little minions! Please? :)**


	12. The MakeUp

12

The Make-Up

"Victoire? Vic, wake up. Wake up, please!"

Victoire's frowned ever so slightly as she tried to place that voice. Her head was fuzzy. She couldn't remember anything… where was she? She was lying on something hard. The floor? Why was she lying on the floor? Had she fallen asleep?

"She won't wake up. Is something wrong with her? Victoire, wake up, now! Please wake up, Vic… something's wrong with her!" There was that voice again. It was female. In fact, it sounded a lot like Lily.

"I don't know, Lily… did you find her like this?" Another female voice. Rose?

"Yes!" Lily said, and Victoire thought she sounded teary. Why would she be teary? She'd only fallen asleep… "Oh, please wake up Victoire, come on!" Cool hands on her bare arms, shaking her.

"Lily, stop it, that's not going to help. Lily! Stop it!" Rose ordered. The hands became still, resting on her arms. "I think she's just asleep."

Victoire stirred then, eyes flickering open to the sight of Lily's face inches away from hers. Lily squealed, and the blonde winced. The noise hurt her ears because Lily was so close. The younger girl's expression turned apologetic as she scooted away from Victoire to give her space.

"Victoire?" Rose asked tentatively.

"Are you alright? What happened? Why were you asleep on the floor?" Lily questioned, and Rose rolled her eyes. Victoire had to smile.

"Yes, I'm alright, Lily," she assured the younger girl, sitting up. "I don't know what happened, sweetie. And I don't know why I was asleep on the floor either. Maybe it was comfier than my bed," she joked. She felt perfectly fine, now the fuzziness in her head was clearing.

"Oh, good," Lily smiled, relief written over her face. "I thought something had happened, like with Rose…"

"I'm fine, I promise," Victoire said, before narrowing her eyes at Rose. "And speaking of you, Rose – shouldn't you be resting downstairs?"

"I feel OK now," Rose shrugged, her hand straying to the other hand that had been bleeding so much. "I got bored down there on my own so I snuck out – don't tell Scorpius."

Victoire laughed. "Your secret's safe with me," she grinned, but even as she said these words her memory was flooding back to her. The pregnancy. Her fight with Teddy. And then she remembered everything she'd said, in such painful detail. Merlin, she'd been so stupid and unfair.

"Victoire?" Rose had noticed the change in her cousin's expression, and peered closer. "Have you been crying?"

"No," she lied, touching her tear-stained cheeks and her red, puffy eyes.

"You are a very bad liar," Lily stated bluntly, which made Victoire laugh out loud because the younger girl was no better – except when it came to her dad. With Harry, Lily just turned on the waterworks and he'd melt.

"Fine," she sighed. "I had a fight with Teddy."

"What about?" Rose asked softly.

"I – I can't tell you," Victoire said.

Rose glared at her. "Yes, you can, and you will," she demanded sternly. That glare was rather scary, Victoire had to admit.

Victoire sighed once more. "Alright, but you can't tell anyone. Either of you." She fixed Lily with her gaze. The redhead nodded solemnly. "Right. Well, I'm pregnant."

Rose's jaw dropped open. Lily gasped, and her face split into a wide grin. "Vic! That's bloody brilliant, congratulations!"

"Language, young lady," Victoire admonished, but she was smiling. "Rose?"

"It's not too soon… after the… is it?" Rose said uncertainly. She couldn't bring herself to say the word. Victoire's miscarriage had shaken everyone up, and it was a topic that nobody had ever dared bring up since it happened, not around Victoire at least.

The blonde sighed sadly. "No, it's not too soon after the miscarriage," she told her cousin. "But I didn't think that before. I didn't want the baby, so I told him and we had an argument. I was so selfish. I wish I could take back what I said, but now… Teddy hates me. I said awful things, Rose." She was beginning to tear up now.

"Oh, Vic!' Rose exclaimed, and caught the blonde by surprise by running at her and throwing her arms around her. "Teddy doesn't hate you. Whatever you said, he can't hate you for it. He loves you too much."

Victoire hugged Rose close, grateful for the support, and held her arm out for Lily, who grinned and rushed into her arms, bowling all three of them over back on to the floor. The girls started giggling, and then laughing, and once they'd started they couldn't stop. Victoire didn't know what she had to laugh about, given what was going on with Teddy, but it felt like so long since she'd laughed.

Being the eldest, Victoire wasn't really meant to have favourite cousins, and she'd always claimed that she didn't have favourites. She'd always known she'd been lying when she said that.

*** ****. * . ***

Albus had never known Number 12, Grimmauld Place, to feel so tense.

He'd quite lost track of who wasn't speaking to who, and who knew something else about another person that the rest didn't know. It was inevitable that with so many people stuck in one house for over a week, with so many different clashing personalities, there were going to be arguments. Teddy had already gone off at James for attempting to slip a love potion into Ginny and Hermione's drinks at breakfast, and James was still in a mood with him for 'being a spoilsport'. Meanwhile Ron had just about had it with the twins teasing about him and Hermione, and his unwillingness to do anything about it made the twins increase the teasing, which only annoyed Hermione as well. Rose and Scorpius were refusing to even make eye contact with George most of the time, and Albus was growing steadily suspicious of the undeniable smirk on his uncle's face whenever he saw Rose and Scorpius together. Did he know about them? If he did, why hadn't Scorpius told him anything about it? It didn't look like George had told anyone else, but then, what if the twins were planning something? And surely somebody else must have noticed the amount of time Rose and Scorpius spent together. And why wasn't Teddy talking to Victoire anymore?

Al sighed in frustration. He had no idea what was going on with everyone at the moment, and it wasn't really worth attempting finding out. It would all come out sooner or later.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER!"

Right about now, in fact.

Al glanced up from the book he was reading about curses. He'd been trying to find out something, anything, about a time travel curse or spell that might exist, but the sight of Ginny Weasley beside herself with anger was enough to wipe any thoughts of that out of his mind. The girl in question burst into the living room, red in the face and breathing very hard. Even Rose had never been this scary when she was fourteen.

"Where is he?" Ginny demanded of Al, who almost flinched at her terrifying glare. He really should be better than this, he was two years older than her at this moment in time and he should be used to her glares.

"I – " But before he could answer, James himself slouched into the room.

"Afternoon," he said pleasantly. Al stared at him. Surely he must know he was in massive trouble?

Ginny turned on him. If looks could kill, James would be a pile of ashes on the ground. "James Sirius Potter," she repeated, her voice low and dangerous. _Calm before the storm, _Al thought, and considered slipping out the room unnoticed. But going deaf from Ginny's screams was well worth seeing his seventeen-year-old brother get ripped apart limb from limb – metaphorically, of course – by his fourteen-year-old mother. "_What _is this?" Ginny held up something Al hadn't noticed hanging from her hand, practically shoving it in James' face.

James made a show of peering at it closely and inspecting it. "Looks like… hmm… yes, I think that is most definitely a knocked-out Crookshanks."

And the object being held from its tail was indeed a raggedy, dirty orange cat who would have been viciously attacking Ginny's face if he wasn't severely knocked out. Crookshanks looked almost lovable when he was out cold, Al observed.

" I KNOW IT'S CROOKSHANKS!" Ginny shrieked at James. Both boys winced. They hadn't been prepared for that.

"Erm, so why does he look like he's been hit over the head with a cricket bat?" James asked conversationally, and for the first time there was clear discomfort in his voice and face. Al snickered, before wondering what a cricket bat was.

"Why don't you tell me?" Ginny offered, looking like she might blow up again any second.

"Well, you see – it's really quite funny, when you think about it –"

"HAVING CROOKSHANKS FLUNG AT MY FACE IS FUNNY?" Ginny screamed. She was truly angry. Al almost felt sorry for James.

It turned out that Ginny had been walking down the hall when something very fluffy, very large and very painful had smashed into her face and knocked her to the ground. Fred, George and James had somehow captured Crookshanks, fixed him into something similar to a catapult, and hurled the poor, hissing cat at the first person they heard coming down the hallway. When Ginny had found out her brothers were involved, they'd been in big trouble as well. And when Hermione found out what her cat had been put through, well, it wasn't pretty.

"He was fine – I swear, he's half-Kneazle, he's hardly been affected," James tried to protest when Hermione rounded on him, clutching a stirring Crookshanks to her chest. "Maybe his face is a little more squashed, but..."

To be fair, Crookshanks didn't seem in the least hurt by the incident, though he did make a point to try and scratch James, red and George whenever he could, and hiss at them. Hermione, Ginny, Rose, Lily and Victoire were cold-shouldering all three of them, all being very fond of Crookshanks in the present and the future. Teddy had apparently given up all hope on James, and Molly was of course furious at the boys, but everyone else simply found the whole thing hilarious.

Distraction from this incident came after dinner, in the form of Remus, Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Remus raised an eyebrow at the obvious tension between his son and Victoire, but Tonks just shook her head slightly and he let it go.

Once everyone had assembled in the dining room, Kingsley unrolled a large piece of parchment and laid it out on the table. Everyone crowded round it at once.

"And this is…?" Ron prompted.

"We've come up with a list of known curses and spells we think might have anything to do with time travel, and the situation you're in," Kingsley said. "They have explanations as well, so we can narrow it down and work from there."

"What do you mean by 'known'?" Hermione asked.

"Ones we've been able to find in our records," Remus explained. "Written incantations, recorded cases where the curse or spell has been used. That sort of thing."

A couple of people nodded in understanding, trying to read the sheet of parchment from where they stood.

"We were thinking that you guys could research all these, while we look into everything else we have to deal with," Tonks said. "Not all of them are to do directly with time travel, but time travel is mentioned, so we've included them. Most of them are pretty old – you won't recognise them."

"And once we've figured out which curse or spell is the one on the necklace and the jewellery box –" Sirius began.

"- we can start to work out how to counter it and send everyone back home," Tonks nodded, smiling at the eight time travellers.

"So we have to read to research all this?" James groaned.

"Shut up, you are in no position to moan," Rose snapped, still sour about the whole Crookshanks business.

"There are twenty-three possibilities here, I'm sure you'll manage it between you," Remus said, smiling slightly. This future James reminded him so much of his how his best friend used to be.

James huffed irritably, but kept quiet for once.

"Hey, speaking of the jewellery box, have you gotten any further on that yet?" Victoire piped up.

Kingsley shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We haven't been able to trace it anywhere. The only conclusion we can draw is that when the box transported you and Teddy from 2022 to 1995, it not only disappeared with you but it disappeared from its place in 1995 as well."

"Just like the necklace must have done," Bill said.

" I'm sure I've already said that's confusing," James muttered.

"Everything's confusing to you," Lily told him lightly.

"Our next step is to examine the necklace and the jewellery box," Remus explained. "That could take a few days, but it will more than likely reveal everything we need to know."

Ten minutes later, Kingsley was gone, having collected the necklace and the jewellery box and bidding goodbye to everyone and Disapparating to the Ministry.

"Does this mean we're going to be here longer than we thought?" Lily asked softly.

"Yes, Lily, but not much longer. I promise." Teddy tried to sound comforting, but he really had no idea how long they were going to be here.

"But what about the ba-bleeding?" Victoire questioned, catching herself saying 'baby' at the last moment. Her eyes locked with Teddy's for a split second, and she glanced down guiltily.

Mr Weasley gave her a sympathetic smile. "I think the bleeding is something we can't control. You're just going to have to watch yourselves from now on. We don't want another Rose-incident."

Rose blushed.

"Do you think there could be other side effects of the curse?" Victoire asked carefully. She was growing increasingly worried about the health of the baby. She'd miscarried last time, and who knows what time travel could do to the baby? What if it was hurting it right now?

"Again, we'll just have to watch out for those," Bill said. "For now we're only aware of the bleeding, but if you feel anything else strange, you lot, you must tell us straight away."

Victoire felt quite sick now. If a simple tiny injury, like pricking your finger, could cause so much blood loss, what would happen to her baby if they stayed here much longer? She paled instantly. And she'd said all those things to Teddy… if they lost the baby again…

"Vic?" Teddy asked tentatively when he saw her pale, the first time he'd even acknowledged her since their fight. Him speaking her name was all it took for Victoire to break down into tears.

She really was getting sick of crying. Victoire wasn't somebody who regularly cried in public. _Must be the hormones, _she decided, as she abruptly stood up and rushed out the room, trying to hide her face.

"Vic?" Teddy said again, running after her, all earlier anger forgotten. He found her in the living room, and put his arms around her shaking body, the two of them standing there in the middle of the room, Victoire sobbing into his shoulder. "What is it? What's wrong?"

And then it all came pouring out. "Teddy, I'm s-so sorry! I shouldn't h-have said all th-those things, it was horrible of me! I'm sorry… I'm so s-selfish and stupid. Teddy, please f-forgive me… I didn't know what to do, I was so s-scared… it's all my f-fault if I lose the baby again." A small whine escaped her lips as she tried unsuccessfully to calm herself down, and she squeezed her eyes tight shut again.

"No, Victoire," Teddy said sternly, holding her closer and rubbing her back. "Losing the baby last time wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. It happens, Vic, these things happen and we can't help it."

Victoire nodded shakily. "I-I know that now. But I knew that I-I'd disappoint you if I lost it again… T-Teddy, I just don't want to go through that again… I couldn't cope…"

Teddy kissed the top of her head, hugging her fiercely. "You'll never disappoint me. Ever, sweetheart. I love you so much. Baby or no baby, that'll never change. And whatever happens this time around, we'll deal with it. We did it last time, we'll do it again. But Vic, I'm never going to force you to do anything. I love you."

"I love you too." She pulled away, trying to smile through the tears she was furiously wiping away. "We're a right pair, aren't we?" she joked feebly, hiccupping slightly.

Teddy grinned. "We are." He gingerly rested a hand on Victoire's stomach, and kissed his wife's forehead. "With us as parents, this little one doesn't stand a chance."

* * *

**AN: I'm so sorry! It's been nearly a month since I updated, and then I give you this crappy chapter! Gah! What excuses do I have? Writer's block. That's it. I knew what I wanted to write, but I couldn't find the words when it came to writing this chapter, which is why it's such a sad excuse for a chapter. I'm sorry. I just wanted to give you something after nearly a month of no updates :S I'm hoping I'll get my 'mojo' back soon - in other words, my ability to write something half-decent. Anyhoo... yeah, once I get over this... whatever it is - let's call it 'Meh' - once I get over my Meh, the chapters will start to pick up. I promise. xD Thank you for all your reviews so far and making me get off my lazy arse and try to write something! I really appreciate it :)**

**They'll all find out about Rose and Scorpius soon, I promise. You must hate me for leaving it so long... xD**

**Oh, and Rome was fantastic! If you've never been, MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO GO THERE. It really is brilliant - we were staying right next to the Colosseum, and everything was so surreal. The Romans really don't appreciate the city they live in enough :D Haha... we're going to Iceland in a few weeks as well. Horse riding around volcanoes sounds good...**


	13. The War Is Now

**AN: Hello! Huh, it's been exactly a week since I updated. I think from now on updates will be about a week apart. I have exams coming up and other stories I want to focus on at the same time, so I'm sorry about that, but a week isn't that long, is it? ;) Thank you for reviewing so far! I hope this chapter is better than last one.**

**I have good news and bad news:**

**The Good News: I've now worked out exactly what's happening in each chapter, and so I've worked that there will be 20 chapters in total. It'll be easier and faster to write now that I know exactly what's going on.**

**The Bad News: You're going to hate me at the end of this chapter.**

* * *

13

The War Is Now

Everybody was overjoyed about the baby. Victoire and Teddy announced their news when they went back to the kitchen, hand in hand. After a celebratory round of Firewhiskey – Butterbeer for Victoire and everyone under seventeen, despite their protests - Victoire retired for the night, the day's events having exhausted her, and the others weren't far behind. The last stragglers (Sirius and Remus, the latter of whom had practically been forced into having more than a few drinks by the former, 'in honour' of his future grandchild) found themselves unable to climb the stairs to their rooms, and just fell asleep right at the kitchen table.

**+.+.+**

Scorpius was the first person up the next morning. Unable to get back to sleep, he crept out of his and Al's shared room, careful not to wake his snoring friend up, and went downstairs into the kitchen. He got himself a glass of water and sat down at the kitchen table, yawning tiredly.

"Hey," a voice mumbled from behind him. Scorpius turned round to see Rose standing the doorway, bleary-eyed and wrapped in a large cardigan as substitute for a dressing gown.

"Morning," he replied softly, smiling at her. He pulled out a chair beside him, and the girl stumbled over, still slightly uncoordinated this early. She sat down, rubbing her eyes. Her hair very closely resembled a bush, which made Scorpius chuckle lightly.

"What?" Rose asked, too tired to sound accusing.

Scorpius reached out and toyed with a strand of thick red hair, tucking it behind her ear. "Nothing. I like your hair."

She gave him an odd look, then shook her head. He was a strange boy. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Woke up early," Scorpius shrugged. "You?"

"I barely slept," Rose admitted. Scorpius frowned at her, and she continued by saying, "I was worrying about stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Everything. Victoire and the baby, when we'll be going back home, how Lily's already starting to crack, what we'll have to do to get back home, us, this –" She held up her arm, which had been freshly bandaged yesterday.

"Do you feel OK now?" Scorpius asked, gesturing to her arm. She nodded.

"I'm fine. It was a little scary, though."

"What did you mean, you're worried about us?"

Seeing his slightly worried expression, Rose laughed lightly and shook her head. "No, nothing like that. I'm not breaking up with you, don't worry."

"Oh, damn." Scorpius pretended to be disappointed, and Rose smacked him.

"Shush you. I only meant I was worried about how everyone's going to react to us," she said in a small voice.

Scorpius sighed. "Rose, we've been over this. Nobody's going to kill you – well, your dad might, but your mum won't let him. He won't be any worse than he was when he found out in our time."

Rose snorted. "Yeah, which was very bad and I'd prefer never to see him like that again! I might actually die this time round." Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"You are a drama queen."

"Not as much as you."

"I think you will find I am a drama prince."

"That sounds even more gay. Is there something I should know? What really goes on with you and Al, all alone in your own room at night?"

"Oh, shut up."

**+.+.+**

"Right, so the boys can take that half of the library, and we'll take this half, and cover it like that," Hermione said, directing Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Teddy, James, Al, Scorpius and Hugo to their side of the library. "Remember, if you find anything relevant, note it down and look into it –"

"And then come and tell you everything so you can work it out," Ron finished. Hermione rolled her eyes, and shooed him away, joining Ginny, Victoire, Rose and Lily near their side of the library.

The boys all seemed to like Ron's method of strolling up and down the aisles of bookshelves, pulling books off the shelves at random and flicking through them. The girls were all taking their time to scan the shelves for relevant titles and subjects, which was more time consuming but probably a lot more productive.

Every few minutes, someone would point something out they'd found.

"Oh, here's something… oh, no, never mind, I misread it…"

"This one's about time travel… but it only works if you curse the actual person…"

"Here's one of the curses!" "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Whoa, guys! Did you know that Hippogriffs can be gay?"

And Hermione would always reply with something along the lines of:

"Never mind, keep looking…"

"Well, it's about time travel, that's something I suppose…"

"No, Hugo, don't open that –! Yes, it screams. Sorry."

"James, only you care about whether Hippogriffs can be gay or not," Lily said. "If they are, you can go and join them!"

Hermione and Rose were in their element: more than once they'd get engrossed in reading something and forget what they were actually supposed to be looking for, and have to tear their eyes away from the pages and make a mental note to go back to the book later.

Everyone else, on the other hand, wasn't so thrilled about researching something they had no clue about. The only people who made a real effort to keep at it were Scorpius, for Rose's sake, and Teddy, because as the oldest he felt he was responsible for getting everyone back home safely.

Fred, George and James had lasted a full seven minutes before they couldn't stand the boredom any longer. To amuse themselves, they put their researching skills to finding rude pictures in books, and went out of their way to follow people around wherever they went, leaning over their shoulder while they read. Eventually Rose and Lily got so fed up of this they turned round and whacked the twins over the head with their books at the same time.

Harry, Ron and Hugo were the next to get bored. After about an hour, they gave up, having found something at the back of the library that interested them a lot more – a wizard's chess board. They played quietly, trying not to alert the girls to the fact that they too had stopped researching.

After two hours, Lily had fallen asleep on the book she'd been reading, and was now snoring lightly. Fred and George spotted the perfect opportunity, and were levitating a bottle of ink over the sleeping girl's head when Ginny caught them. That was when they were kicked out altogether.

"Ugh, this is hopeless!" Rose announced eventually, three hours in. Everybody looked round at her in surprise – Lily jerked awake. Rose, thinking books were hopeless? "We're not getting anywhere!"

"She's right," Al sighed, closing his book with a slam. "This is a waste of time."

"Maybe we're just looking in the wrong place?" Lily suggested half-heartedly, following this up with a loud yawn.

"We're in a _library," _Scorpius said. "Where else _is_ there?"

"I don't know, another library?" Lily snapped, apparently cranky after being so rudely awoken.

"Look, guys, let's not fight about this," Teddy said. "We'll just go and have some lunch, come back, and try again."

James let out a very loud groan. "Why? I don't want to come back again! This is so boring, and we've found nothing!"

"Do you want to go home or not?" Victoire raised an eyebrow at him.

"Course I do, but why can't we let Rose and Al and Malfoy and Aunt Hermione and you and Teddy do the research? Nobody else wants to do it."

"We are not doing all the work while you sit around on your lazy arse!" Rose said shrilly.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny glanced at each other, wondering whether they should get involved or leave their future kids to it.

"Why not? You lot are the only ones who actually like reading!" James defended.

"And that gives you an excuse to do nothing, does it?" Rose shot back.

"Rose, lay off him, you know he's a git when he's being forced to do something," Lily said tiredly.

"I'm not a git!"

"Yes you are!"

"Guys, shut up!" Hugo yelled. Rose, James and Lily jumped, and turned to look at him. "I'm starving!"

Everybody stared at him. Then Lily began to giggle, and a peal of laughter broke out in the group. Still chuckling at Hugo's statement, they agreed to take a break for lunch, and left the library with their books strewn open everywhere.

**+.+.+**

Hermione was walking through the library putting books back into their correct places, and tidying up the deserted library. Darkness had descended with only a few candles flickering feebly, so she almost didn't notice the person seated at a table in the corner, apparently fast asleep.

She padded softly over to him. "Hugo," she whispered, gently shaking his shoulder. "Hugo, wake up."

"Muh?" Hugo raised his head sleepily, his cheek sticking to the page of the open book he'd fallen asleep on. He frowned. "What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight," Hermione replied, glancing at the grandfather clock a few metres away. "Everyone went to bed ten minutes ago."

"Oh. How long was I asleep?" he asked groggily, peeling away the page from his cheek.

"I don't know, I only just found you. I was just making sure everything was back in the right place," she explained.

Hugo glanced around the library. "Just making sure everything was back in the right place? D'you mean you've been going back round trying to find books you might want to read later?"

Hermione blushed, and Hugo chuckled. "You're just like Rose."

She couldn't help but smile at that comment.

"Well, we should go to bed too," she said briskly. "I expect you're just as tired as I am."

"Mm-hm," Hugo agreed, not really sounding tired at all.

There was a moment of silence. "Hugo," Hermione began timidly, unable to resist asking. Questions had been plaguing her mind ever since the time travellers' arrival, and like any question that was on Hermione's mind, it killed her not to know the answers. "What – what is it like? In the future?"

Hugo sighed. He, his sister and his cousins had wondered when they were going to start asking these questions. "Well, Voldemort's dead," he stated bluntly, and was surprised to see her wince slightly at the name. She wasn't afraid of it in his time. "Uncle Harry killed him, at the Battle of Hogwarts."

"The Battle of Hogwarts?" Hermione frowned.

"Yep. Voldemort and the Death Eaters came to Hogwarts near the end of what would have been your seventh year. That's where… Uncle Fred and Teddy's parents died," Hugo said softly, looking down at his hands.

"Oh." Hermione hadn't missed the 'what would have been', but she needed to know something else first. "How bad is the Second Wizarding War? How many people died?"

"It was worse than the first," Hugo replied. "We've never been told in much detail what happened, but we know it was really bad. At the Battle, over fifty people on our side died, but so many more were killed before that. Hundreds of Muggle-borns and Muggles were killed in the lead-up to the Battle. Innocent people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Like Cedric Diggory," Hermione murmured quietly. Hugo nodded. "Why weren't we there for our seventh year?"

"What?"

"You said 'what would have been' our seventh year. Why weren't we there?" Hermione repeated.

"You, Dad and Uncle Harry were on the run," Hugo explained.

"Why?"

"You never told us," Hugo shrugged. "We only know that it had something to do with destroying Voldemort. We've got no idea what happened while you were on the run."

"I suppose I wouldn't have been able to go back to Hogwarts anyway, what with me being a Muggle-born," Hermione realised. The thought of not returning to the castle that had become her home over the years filled her with a gut-wrenching sadness. She hadn't known she'd cared so much for Hogwarts before.

Hugo shook his head. "They were rounding up the Muggle-borns. You had to either go into hiding, or be captured."

Letting out a deep sigh, Hermione let her head drop into her hands. "Things are only going to get much harder in the future, aren't they?" It wasn't a question. She guessed that she'd always known they'd have a huge fight on their hands, and she would always be by Harry's side no matter what, but hearing about it, hearing about the amount of people who died... it made it all seem so much more real, and so much closer. Until now they'd been pretending that they didn't have a clue what was going to happen, but Hermione realised with a shock that they'd been preparing for this for a long time now. Even if nobody knew they'd been preparing. Cedric's death last year, Voldemort's return, the newspapers turning against Harry… Voldemort was already making his mark without people even believing he was really back. This wasn't a war they were fighting in the future. They were fighting this war right now.

Hugo nodded. "Yes, they are. But we'll win."

**+.+.+**

The next morning, Ron woke up to find his room empty. Harry, Hugo and James had apparently already woken up and gone down to breakfast.

"Didn't bother to wake me up," Ron grumbled. He pulled on some fresh clothes, and stumbled sleepily out of his room.

As he was passing Al and Scorpius' room, he distinctly heard a voice that belonged to neither of said boys. In fact, it sounded a lot like it belonged to George.

"So I'm willing to make you a deal," his brother was saying. Curiosity getting the better of him, Ron stopped to listen.

"What deal?" a girl asked. That was definitely Rose.

"Ah, glad you asked!" George said cheerfully, and Ron could imagine Rose rolling her eyes. It was what he would've done. "Here it is: if you agree to test some of our products out for us, we won't tell Ron about you."

_Won't tell me about who? _Ron wondered. _What's Rose done? And why does George of all people know?_

"By 'test some of your products out for you', you mean be your guinea pigs?" a second voice drawled. The Malfoy kid! What was he doing there? Aside from the fact that it was his bedroom, of course.

"Pretty much, yes," George said cheerily. "Do we have a deal, dear niece and her ferret boy?" _Her ferret boy? _What was George on about?

"Do we have any choice?" Rose questioned. Ron suppressed a snort. You never had a choice when it came to one of the twins blackmailing you, and something in Rose's voice told him that she knew that.

"Nope," George said. "Unless, of course, you want Ron to find out that you two are going out."

A moment of stunned silence. Then:

"WHAT?"

* * *

**AN: I told you that you'd hate me *dodges flying tomatoes and rotten bits of fruit* I'm sorry! I know you've been waiting for Ron's reaction for about 10 chapters, BUT that will come next chapter. For now I leave you hating me for leaving you hanging... but please review anyway XD The more reviews, the better Ron's reaction... ;)**


	14. Ron's Outburst

**AN: Evening all! Well, it's the holidays! *happy dance* And I got the extended options I wanted, which I'll be doing for GCSE in a couple of years time, German and Art! Sorry, I'm just really happy about that. And now I have more than a week of school, to, erm, revise... *happy bubble is deflated* Ho hum, pig's bum. But anyhoo! Here is the chapter you've all been waiting for! And if you're disappointed, well then, I'll be very embarrassed! xD**

**Oh, yeah! Has anyone see the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows literal trailer? It's very funny, look it up on ze tube of you. (youtube) Also look at the Twilight one ('Kristen contemplates her taste in men'... pretty much sums up the whole saga) and the Assassin's Creed one ('Ooh, I LOVE birds!'). No, really, go watch. Now. Before I destroy you with my awesome. **

**... But read this first. And review, my little party sausages!**

* * *

14

Ron's Outburst

"WHAT?"

Rose and Scorpius leapt back as Ron burst into the room. Even George jumped a little, though he had that infuriatingly knowing smirk on his face. Rose wondered briefly if he'd known all along that Ron was outside the room eavesdropping, but all thoughts of that faded quickly from her mind when she saw how furious her dad was.

"Ah, Ronald, my dear brother!" George beamed. "Nice of you to pop in!"

Now Rose was sure that George had planned this all along – although getting her revenge wasn't at the very top of her priorities list right now.

There was dreadful silence following George's statement. Rose stared, terrified, at her father. Scorpius' eyes flicked nervously between his girlfriend and Ron, while George just had that merry grin on his face one can only have when you're laughing at somebody else's expense. Ron didn't seem to know what to say first. His eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, like he was trying to burn Rose and Scorpius to the ground with his glare. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

"I - what – who – why – where - what is this?" Ron spluttered, gesturing wildly at his daughter and Scorpius as he tried in vain to string an articulate sentence together. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

"Erm – Dad," Rose began, in a placating tone. "Why don't you sit down -"

"No, I will not bloody sit down!" Ron shouted, his arms flailing wildly in his anger. He then jabbed an accusing finger at Rose, who flinched. "You! You have some explaining to do!"

It seemed, however, that Ron didn't actually want Rose to explain anything, because as soon as she'd opened her mouth, all hell broke loose.

"How could you? What the bloody hell were you thinking?" he yelled at her, blatantly ignoring Scorpius and George, the latter of whom seemed to find this highly amusing.

"Dad – Ron? - I –" Rose sighed loudly as she realised she wasn't going to get a word in edgeways.

"I don't believe you'd do this! _My _daughter! A _Weasley, _date – going – _doing things _with a Malfoy! With _that!" _The finger-jabbing was now directed at Scorpius, who recoiled immediately. "You're – you're fraternising with the enemy! That's what's going on here!"

"Mr Weasley –" Scorpius tried to interrupt as politely as possible.

"Don't 'Mr Weasley' me!" Ron exclaimed, turning on him. Rose was certain that if he was any angrier, steam would be shooting from his ears. "What have you been doing with my daughter? Answer me!"

Scorpius shrank back. Sure, Ron was a year younger than him right now, but he was also about a head taller. Rose shuffled closer to him, squeaking slightly when her dad shouted at her boyfriend.

Footsteps thundered up the stairs, and Ron was momentarily distracted as Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, James, Lily, Hugo and Al piled into the room, wide-eyed as they looked from one occupant of the room to another. Fred was quick to join his twin, and it only took a nod from George for identical gleeful grins to spread across both their faces.

"What's going on here?" Lily asked timidly, at the same time that Hermione and Ginny said in an apprehensive tone, "Ron, what have you done?"

"Nothing! It's not me for once, Hermione!" Ron defended himself. Hermione just raised her eyebrows at him. "I'm serious!"

"Nope, he's downstairs," James pitched in, causing Lily to groan. Everybody else ignored him.

"Then who is it?" Hermione challenged. "You're the one making all the racket! It's hardly going to be Rose's fault, now, is it –"

"Actually, it is!" Ron shouted, raising his voice at her for the first time, making her flinch and step back slightly. Harry glared at him, and Ron sighed. "I'm sorry, Hermione. It's just – you need to know what's going on."

"Then tell us what's going on, you git!" Ginny cried impatiently. Ron looked offended for a fraction of a second, before he remembered what he'd been so angry about before.

"These two!" he announced, turning round to glare at Rose and Scorpius again. "These two are what's going on! They're – they're – doing – bad things –"

"Planning to prank someone?" Ginny prompted.

"Planning to rob Gringotts?" Fred joked.

"Doing each other?" James snickered. Lily squeaked and Hugo, Al and Ron looked violently sick, while pink tinged Scorpius' cheeks and Rose's red face rivalled Ron's.

"That's enough from you," Ginny said sharply. James' jaw fell open. He'd just been basically told to shut up by his fourteen-year-old mother! That wasn't something you heard everyday.

"THEY'RE DATING!" Ron suddenly shrieked, causing everyone to jump half a foot in the air. "They're going out! As in, boyfriend and girlfriend!"

"Well, yes, that's the general idea," Fred nodded.

"And with the 'boyfriend and girlfriend' part usually comes snogging," George put in nonchalantly.

"Don't make it _worse_!" Ron howled at his brothers, truly at the end of his tether now.

"Is he telling the truth?" Ginny asked, glancing from Rose to Scorpius. Rose nodded reluctantly, inching closer still to Scorpius.

"And you lot knew?" Harry turned to James, Lily, Hugo and Al. They nodded sheepishly.

"We didn't want you lot to know, because we didn't really need the stress. And, well, I don't think Rose and Scorpius fancy going deaf," Albus answered.

"And seeing Ron's reaction, I don't blame you," Hermione muttered darkly. She put a hesitant hand on the redhead's arm. "Ron, maybe you should calm down. Hear them out." Rose sent her mother a grateful smile.

"Hermione!" Ron cried disbelievingly. "Don't you care about what _ferret junior _is doing to Rose? To – to – our daughter? He could be planning something right now to break her heart and ruin our whole family!" Rose and Scorpius' jaws dropped, outraged. Hermione blushed profusely at the 'our daughter' – she supposed she wasn't going to get over that – but now wasn't really the time for it.

"Ron," Harry said warningly, not liking where this was going on. He knew the hurtful things that could slip out of Ron's mouth when he got carried away in his anger.

His best friend didn't hear him, or if he did, he ignored him. "Who knows what he's up to? Who knows what his motives are?" He was rounding on Scorpius now, and Rose tried to act as a shield between her boyfriend and her father, but Scorpius wouldn't let her, standing as tall as he could as Ron worked himself up more and more.

"Ronald, really, I think you're being slightly overdramatic," Hermione said crossly, irritated now. Couldn't he see that he was upsetting Rose and Scorpius?

"I'm not being overdramatic! HIS FAMILY ARE DEATH EATERS! WHO'S TO SAY HE'S NOT GOING THE SAME WAY?"

"No," Ginny breathed, as the room fell silent. Her brother couldn't have just said that. Even he wasn't that stupid. Was he?

Rose was the first to find her voice. "You can't be serious," she whispered, staring at Ron like she didn't even know him. "You can't be serious."

Fred and George caught James' eye, who had to clamp his mouth tight shut.

"Well, who knows?" Ron bit back stubbornly. Hermione swore she could hear the faintest trace of uncertainty in his voice, but she knew he wasn't about to back down now. Why, _why _did Ron have to be so stubborn? She felt sorry for their children, she honestly did. "Have you even met his dad?"

"Actually, I have!" Rose replied hotly, voice rising. Hugo shook his head: he could see where this was going. "I've met both his parents and I'm glad I did, because they're lovely people, much nicer than you're being right now!"

Scorpius felt a surge of gratitude and pride for his girlfriend, because he knew his father had never been 'lovely' to Rose, far from it in truth – and yet she was still standing up for him, and for that he loved her even more.

"What, so you like his family more now, do you?" Ron challenged. "Have they brainwashed you that much?"

"I can't believe you!" Rose shouted, tears pricking at her eyes. "The rest of the family is fine with Scorpius and I dating! Mum gets along with Astoria, YOU get along with Astoria, you even started to like Scorpius when he came over to stay the summer after third year! Nobody else has a problem! What gives you the right to have one?"

"I'm your dad!" Ron yelled. "That's what gives me the right to have a problem!"

"So? You don't govern my life, especially not when you're a year younger than me!" Yes, Hugo had been right about where this was going. A screaming match. All the onlookers were staring at Ron and Rose, not sure whether they should step in or not. They really didn't like hearing this. Hermione and Ginny weren't sure how long they could hold in their anger towards Ron.

"I do when you make such stupid choices about who to date! What the bloody hell were you thinking?" Father and daughter were practically spitting in each other's faces now.

"Don't talk to her like that!" roared Scorpius, automatically stepping in front of Rose.

"And here he is himself!" Ron cried, glaring at Scorpius. "The junior Death Eater himself!"

"RON, STOP IT!" screamed Hermione, close to crying like her daughter now. Ron whipped round, surprised this had come from her.

"What?" he barked.

"Ron, come away now," she demanded, trying to keep her voice firm and strong as she grabbed Ron's arm. "Let's go. You need to – _Ron!" _She tried to pull him away as he struggled against her.

"Let – go – of – me!" Ron spluttered out, straining against her grip. Hermione only rolled her eyes as she dragged him out the room.

"Well done, mate," Harry muttered sarcastically as they left the room, Hermione casting apologetic glances to everyone and sending a sympathetic smile to Rose and Scorpius, which she hoped conveyed both her apology for Ron's behaviour and her approval. She thought it must have gotten through, because Scorpius gave her a nod in reply.

Rose wasn't even looking in their direction.

Slipping her hand into Scorpius', the redhead took a few deep breaths before saying, "Now. Does anyone else have anything they'd like to get of their chest?"

Deafening silence met her question. Nobody knew quite what to say. "Good," Rose said briskly, and with that she took her hand from Scorpius' again and walked out of the room without another word.

"Rose," Lily tried to stop her cousin as she brushed past her, but Rose was already gone. Which left only Scorpius, James, Hugo, Al, Lily, Harry, Ginny and the twins stood in dumbstruck stillness.

"Ah, the joys of having family!" George exclaimed at last, clapping his hands together as everyone else threw him very filthy looks.

**+.+.+**

"Cat's out the bag," Teddy said as he came into the room in which Victoire was resting. He gave her the glass of water he'd gone to get for her, and sat down in the chair beside the bed again. "Hugo's just told me."

Victoire's brow furrowed for a moment, before her expression cleared. "Ah. Rose and Scorpius. So that was all the noise we could hear ten minutes ago." She sipped the ice cold water.

Teddy nodded. "According to James, the whole thing was worth paying for to see." The Metamorphagus shook his head. "But that's just James, I suppose. Honestly, I think Lily is more upset than Rose."

"Well, it is Lily. She always wants everyone to get along and play happy families." Victoire chuckled, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. "Like that's ever going to happen."

"Mmm, Probably not, with so many Weasleys and Potters and whatnot," Teddy shrugged, and Victoire giggled. "But we'll be a happy family, won't we? You, me, and this little one." He leant over to rest a hand on Victoire's stomach, the other hand gently stroking her hair. "Just us three."

Victoire smiled softly at him, lacing her fingers through Teddy's as both their hands lay as close as they could get to their growing baby. "Just us three," she whispered, shutting her eyes happily as Teddy kissed her forehead. "I like the sound of that."

The couple sat in blissful silence for a few minutes, before Teddy leant back in his chair again when Victoire shifted to get comfortable. "You don't have to stay with me, you know," she told him. "I'm perfectly fine resting on my own."

"I've got nothing better to do," Teddy replied nonchalantly. The part-Veela hit him on the arm half-heartedly.

"That makes me feel so loved!" she laughed, noticing Teddy's eyes stray to her stomach again. She grinned slightly. "What do you think it's going to be?"

The turquoise-haired man squinted closer at his wife's still flat stomach. "Well, I'm hoping it'll be something resembling a human," he said slowly, "but I'll be happy even if it comes out a Hippogriff."

Victoire raised her eyebrows slightly, trying to look stern, but it only lasted a second before she burst out laughing. "I meant a boy or a girl, and you know it! Or at least I hope you do, and you weren't serious, or this little one won't get anywhere in life."

"Oi!" Teddy pretended to look mortally offended. "Alright, then. What do I think the little Bowtruckle is going to be?"

The young woman made an odd sort of choking noise. "Excuse me? _Little Bowtruckle?"_

"What? It's a cute nickname!" Teddy leapt to his own defence, genuinely impressed with his own creative naming skills. "Better than just 'Baby', anyway." He was referring to the pet name Victoire had awarded their first baby, before the miscarriage.

"At least 'Baby' was sensible," Victoire pointed out. "Are you sure you want our son or daughter to be a human? Because if I give birth to a pile of twigs –"

"Don't say that, you're insulting Berty's memory! He was not just a pile of twigs." Berty had been Teddy's pet Bowtruckle he'd had two years ago. Berty the Bowtruckle had lasted three days, four hours and twenty-seven minutes – which happened to also be the exact record for Teddy not causing an accident of some kind.

"Fine, but we are not calling this baby Berty," Victoire warned in advanced. Teddy pouted, which made her giggle.

"Honestly, though," Teddy said. "I don't care if it's a boy or a girl. He or she will be spoilt rotten no matter who they turn out to be."

"Though secretly, of course, you're hoping for a little girl so you can call her 'Daddy's little princess'," Victoire teased, smiling knowingly. Teddy blushed, coughing awkwardly.

"Maybe," he said gruffly. At Victoire's widening smile, he huffed. "So sue me for being a softy at heart!"

"Not just at heart, love, you've always been a softy," Victoire told him, playing with his hair.

Teddy growled. "I don't know what you're talking about, Mrs Lupin. I can be rough when I want to."

Victoire giggled playfully. "Oh, really? Care to show me, Mr Lupin?" she whispered, as Teddy leaned in to kiss her deeply.

"Ugh! Get a room!"

The couple sprang apart to see James in the doorway, looking thoroughly disgusted.

"In case you hadn't noticed, we're already in one," Teddy said irritably, annoyed that James had interrupted them.

James glanced around the room, and after making sure that it was, indeed, a room, he carried on as if Teddy hadn't even said anything. "The adults want everyone downstairs. Dumbledore and Minnie are here."

Victoire frowned. "Minnie?"

"Professor McGonagall," James informed her, rolling his eyes like it was so stupid of her not to know McGonagall by this name. "So save all that disturbing stuff for later, preferably somewhere I can't see my cousin and my god-brother getting it on, because they want us down there now."

"We weren't getting it on," grumbled Teddy, as red in the face as Victoire was.

James gave him a look that clearly said, very sarcastically, _Right. I believe you._

"We weren't!" Teddy insisted, fighting a losing battle as the three of them traipsed out the room and downstairs, into the dining room to greet their future Headmistress, and the best Headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen.


	15. Caparoux and Hart

**AN: Evening! Hope you all had a good half term (if you've just had a week's holiday. If you haven't, sucks for you). Sorry this next chapter is late, I was away, but managed to type nearly the whole thing out on my iPod so here we are! **

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15

Caparoux and Hart

Teddy, Victoire and James trooped back downstairs to find Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall seated in the dining room, being regarded with a mixture of awe and nervousness by the time travellers. Well, and everyone else, truth be told. It wasn't often you had the Headmaster of Hogwarts sitting in your dining room.

"Ah, and here are our latecomers!" Dumbledore beamed, as the trio joined their family. Victoire blushed as Dumbledore smiled kindly at her, nearly tripping and face-planting into the table. It had taken all her effort not to gape at the legendary wizard when she'd entered the room, not wanting to seem rude,

James and Hugo didn't seem to share her worries. You would have been able to fly a broomstick into their mouths if they got any wider.

"James! Hugo!" Rose hissed, putting one hand under each boy's chin and pushing them back up to where they should be.

She and Scorpius were, understandably, standing as far away from Ron as it was possible to be. All parties involved in earlier's… disagreement were a lot calmer, even Ron (though that might have had something to do with the fact that Hermione had a vice-like grip on his arm that looked a little painful). He was still, however, throwing glares across the room at Scorpius which suggested he was, at that very moment, plotting many different ways to torture his daughter's boyfriend, kill him, and was probably going through different places in his head where he could hide the body. Rose and Scorpius, on the other hand, were pointedly trying not to look anywhere near Ron, which annoyed Hermione because all this had been Ron's fault in the first place.

Dumbledore was smiling serenely, that familiar twinkle in his eye like nothing was wrong in the world. McGonagall, stern-faced as always, was eyeing James and Albus apprehensively, obviously not missing the fact that they looked a lot like their father and grandfather, both of whom had caused her trouble beyond belief and physically aged her several years in her career as a teacher.

"It's quite alright, Miss Weasley," Dumbledore assured Rose, who blushed in embarrassment. "I am quite used to being the centre of attention." Rose didn't know quite what to say to this. "Sherbet lemon?"

"Yes, please!" Al piped up eagerly, without thinking. The room broke out in giggles as Al went beetroot red.

_There are the Weasley genes. Definitely mine, _thought Ginny as she laughed along with everyone else.

Al accepted a sherbet lemon anyway – he wasn't going to miss out on his favourite sweet after all that – and stuck his tongue out at his brother and sister, who were chuckling even harder as Al popped the sweet in his mouth, trying to save his pride.

"A boy after my own heart!" Dumbledore beamed. "We shall start off the introductions with you!"

Surprisingly, the old wizard made no comment on Al's full name, other than a nod and a smile at Harry. McGonagall was visibly stopping herself from saying anything at the mention of 'Severus'. The lack of reaction he got third time around was relieving for Al.

The rest of the introductions were quick, with a warm smile, a chuckle or even a raised eyebrow here and there, and it was obvious Dumbledore and McGonagall wanted to get on with the reason they were here.

"It has come to my attention that you are looking for a time travelling curse cast on a necklace and a jewellery box, am I right?" Dumbledore asked. Everyone nodded. "May I have a look at these particular objects?"

Remus and Bill fetched them from where they had been keeping them safe and out of harm's way.

"Interesting," Dumbledore murmured, as he examined each object carefully. "Ah, yes. I think I do know what we have here. Tell me, Miss Weasley –"

"Lupin," Victoire corrected automatically. "It's Mrs Lupin, Professor." She slipped her hand into Teddy's, hand going to her stomach.

"Congratulations," Dumbledore and McGonagall smiled. The Transfiguration teacher had warmed to Teddy Lupin somewhat already, and Victoire Weasley too. Bill and especially Remus had always been very good students, and it was rather rare for her to have favourites. She was genuinely pleased for the young couple, and for Remus and Tonks too. Remus deserved this after everything he'd put up with.

"Mrs Lupin," Dumbledore continued, "can you tell me how you came to have this lovely jewellery box in your possession?"

Victoire shifted uncomfortably under the Headmaster's gaze. She felt as if she were being scrutinised. "My _grandmere _gave it to me, before she did," Victoire explained. "It's been in my family for ages. Maman's side, that is," she added, just in case anybody was confused. Which they weren't, but something was making Victoire a little nervous.

"French," Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, it does look like the work of Caparoux…"

"Excuse me?" Victoire frowned.

"Laurent Caparoux, the maker of this jewellery box," Dumbledore told her. "Were you unaware of its origins?"

"Er, yeah, I suppose…" Victoire said slowly, not sure if she should have known this beforehand or not.

"Laurent Caparoux…" Rose was muttering. "I'm sure I've heard of him somewhere."

"Most likely," Dumbledore agreed. "He was rather famous in his day, though more often than not for the wrong reasons, I'm afraid…"

Nobody felt the need to ask what these reasons were.

"But wait," Rose said, in that voice James had named her 'making sure everybody's attention is on her' voice. "Didn't Caparoux live before even the Founders' time?"

"There was a time before the four founders?" James whispered. Rose threw him a pitying look.

"Indeed, Caparoux did live long before Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin," Dumbledore confirmed.

"But then, that's… um, really old," Ron said disbelievingly, sharing the same dumbfounded look as James. Fred and George smirked.

Dumbledore chuckled – which sounded very strange indeed to most of the occupants of the room. "Yes, Mr Weasley, you are correct. This box is in fact ancient, and one of a kind – Caparoux never made anything else like it. And that is what is essential."

"Er… what's essential?" James asked, confused. Dumbledore merely shook his head, and went on to look at the necklace.

"Frances Hart," he said, peering at the design of the gold chain. "Yes, definitely him." He looked up at Sirius. "Hart was the man who made this necklace for your ancestor. He too lived before the founders' time, like Caparoux."

"My family doesn't go back that far," Sirius frowned; that he was relatively certain of.

"This was before they were Blacks," Dumbledore explained. He looked at McGonagall. "Minerva, do you remember the Curse of the Thirteen?"

McGonagall looked taken aback. "I thought that was a myth, Albus," she said. "It's nothing more than legend, surely?"

"Ah, but I think it might be," Dumbledore replied quietly.

"Er, excuse me, Professor," Lily said timidly, "but what is the Curse of the Thirteen?"

Harry and Ron automatically looked to Hermione for an explanation, but were surprised to see she looked just as puzzled at everyone else.

"The Curse of the Thirteen," Dumbledore began, "is most mysterious indeed. For over one thousand years, it has been speculated as nothing more than a myth – something for young wizards who fancy themselves a fortune to waste their lives looking for. The curse? One that would throw a person to a random point in time, whether it be the past or future." This peaked everybody's interest at once. "The thirteen? The number of cursed objects, spread out across the Wizarding and Muggle worlds."

"All over the world? Bloody hell," Hugo whistled.

"Hugo, language!" Hermione scolded without thinking. Harry smirked at her, and she just rolled her eyes in return.

"Yes. Fortunately for you, there is no proof they exist," McGonagall said sternly.

"Minerva, we must be open-minded," Dumbledore said. "Even you must be able to see that with these two objects here, there is a very realistic possibility the myth is more than a myth."

"Albus, there is a rather significant difference between reality and fairytales," McGonagall muttered, tight-lipped. Everyone else was watching their ongoing conversation with interest.

"Are fairytales not based on a snippet of truth?" Dumbledore questioned. McGonagall sighed.

"Perhaps there is a chance," she allowed. "But don't get anyone's hopes up."

Dumbledore smiled. "I am, though it does not seem very modest to say, rather confident that I am right." McGonagall just shook her head slightly, though Scorpius could see the faintest smile at the corner of her mouth.

"And that's ten-zero to Dumbledore!" James stage-whispered as if he was commentating a Quidditch match. "Come on, Minnie, time to step up your game!"

McGonagall nearly fell off her chair. "Minnie?' she repeated.

"Ah, yes, we are on first name terms now," James said pleasantly. "You reserved a seat for me in your office after I exploded an owl in your Floo when the Minister of Magic was arriving in it and he nearly choked to death on feathers. No, really, you've put a placard that says 'James Sirius Potter' on the chair in the corner, but you stopped offering me biscuits in second year." Sirius was guffawing silently behind his old professor's back. Rose and Lily looked exasperated, while Ginny was exchanging a panicked look with Hermione – it was sounding as if her future son got into more trouble than even Harry did, and that was saying a lot.

McGonagall herself looked quite faint. She might have been wishing she had a place in Australia, or perhaps on one of Jupiter's moons, that she could retire to in a few years.

"And getting back to what we were talking about," Bill said pointedly, "you're saying, Dumbledore, that the Curse of the Thirteen is the curse on these objects? How can you be sure?"

"I cannot, " Dumbledore answered simply. "But as I said before, I am quite confident in myself."

"Wait," Teddy said. "If this curse flings people back or forward to a random point in time, how in the name of Merlin did Victoire and I end up in the exact same time as these lot here?" He gestured to James, Al, Lily, Rose, Hugo and Scorpius. "Surely that can't be just pure luck?"

"It is not," Dumbledore replied, smiling at the young man who so resembled his father. "You see, Laurent Caparoux and Frances Hart were brothers."

Rose and Hermione gaped at him like he'd just cheerfully informed them that Death Eaters were staging an attack on Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Everyone else just seemed very surprised.

"But – what – how is that possible?" Rose asked in disbelief. "I'm sure I read that Caparoux and Hart lived at least two hundred years apart! And Caparoux was French while Hart was English, wasn't he?"

"That is what the history books say," Dumbledore said, which only made poor Rose more confused. "Let me explain. When Laurent and Frances Caparoux were alive, there was much competition to produce the best works of art, as there is now. Laurent was always more talented than his younger brother, but of course Frances was skilled as well. However, Laurent's work always sold much better than his brother's."

"And Frances got jealous?" Lily asked.

"Naturally. Wouldn't you if your own flesh and blood constantly achieved more than you?"

Only Hermione noticed Ron's gaze flick to his brothers, and then quickly back to the floor.

"Yeah, I suppose," Lily shrugged.

"Then that is what happened. Frances turned bitter, moved to England and changed his last name. He made sure nobody could ever link him back to his brother, covering up his tracks with magic. He created a new identity for himself, so he could start afresh without always being in Laurent's shadow. He was so thorough that magical historians still think he lived two hundred years after Laurent and had been an entirely different nationality to him on top of that. Nobody has ever connected the dots," Dumbledore finished.

"And you connected the dots, Professor?" James smirked.

"I know people and do my research," Dumbledore said vaguely. "But onto the link between the jewellery box and the necklace. As wizards of impressive magical skill, especially considering that the knowledge of magic was still so raw in their time, Laurent and Frances' works of art were unique, too. Laurent and Frances had been extremely close as children, and that transferred into their art – whether it be paintings, sculptures, jewellery – even as they grew apart, and separated altogether."

"You mean… one brother's art recognised the other brother's art?" Rose asked.

"In a manner of speaking – yes," Dumbledore said.

"But that's impossible," Al said. "I mean, for one that just sounds crazy. And for another, art isn't alive! A jewellery box can't recognise a – a necklace, or something. That's just stupid."

Dumbledore shook his head slightly. "It does sound very strange indeed. But the situation is much like the one of yours and your cousin Rose. You are connected because of your parents." This obviously didn't clear anything up for Al.

"Oh! So the jewellery box and the necklace are like cousins, and Laurent and Frances are like the parents?" Victoire said.

"That's just even more messed up," James muttered, agreeing with his brother. "It makes them sound almost human."

"Exactly, Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said, ignoring James. "And with the amount of magic put into creating these objects, it made them almost… intelligent. When the time travelling curse was activated by the necklace being touched for the first time in one thousand years, the jewellery box landed in exactly the same time as its 'cousin', so to speak. In other words, it followed the necklace because it recognised it."

"And the curse didn't activate all those other times the jewellery box had been handled in the past thousand years or so," Victoire said, "because Frances wasn't as powerful as Laurent, which meant the box wasn't as powerful as the necklace, which meant it lay dormant for so long while the necklace was much more sensitive."

"Correct," confirmed Dumbledore, and Victoire beamed. "But now back to the Curse of the Thirteen. Whilst I am afraid I do not know who cast the curse on these thirteen ancient objects around the world, it is definitely the curse on these antiques – a curse created only for those thirteen objects."

"What about the other eleven objects? What if someone touches them now?" Mrs Weasley asked anxiously.

"I think it is safe for the time being, but I shall make sure I get around to them as soon as possible," the old wizard promised. He glanced up at a large ornate clock hanging on the wall. "Ah! It is time we were on our way." Sirius frowned. That clock hadn't displayed the right time in years. "I do hope this conversation has made your search easier."

"Yes, all they have to do now is look through untrustworthy sources of myths and legends," McGonagall muttered under her breath. James was the only one who heard. Ah, there was the good old Minnie he knew and loved (and who most certainly did not love him back, most people would argue).

After bidding their farewells, Dumbledore and McGonagall left, leaving everyone else wondering what just to do now.

"Erm… game of Exploding Snap, anyone?" Hugo suggested randomly, and everyone turned to stare at him incredulously.

Lily stifled a giggle. Some things would never change.

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**AN: Er, yeah, so not the most exciting chapter ever written in the history of... chapters. But these things have got to put in, don't they? I hope you enjoyed my totally bogus history lesson on two random wizards! xD But next chapter is when everything picks up and we find out who the caster of the curse is. ;) So, please review! And perhaps Chapter 16 will be out quicker than usual. ^_^**


	16. Deangelo Penzance

**AN: What excuses do I have for being 6 days short of a month late in posting this? **

**... No really valid ones, unfortunately.**

**I'm so sorry! I've had exams and revision and homework, then I had writer's block, and then last week I got ill, and I've been struggling with lazybum-itis, and THEY ARE NOT VERY GOOD EXCUSES. Gah. This chapter just... wasn't coming to me? Yeah, I'm pathetic. Throw cyber rotten fruit at me. It might make you feel better.**

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16

Deangelo Penzance

"So then, Al. Cannons or Harpies?"

Ron helped himself to another Chocolate Frog as he grinned at his nephew, throwing the all-important question to him. Harry raised his head in interest. Hugo hid his snigger. All four boys were currently sitting in Harry, Ron, Hugo and James' shared room, hiding from Mrs Weasley, Hermione and anyone else who might rope them into cleaning the house or researching in the library.

"Neither," Al replied. Ron and Harry's jaws dropped.

"But – what – you must like Quidditch!" Ron spluttered. "You can't be a wizard and _not like Quidditch!"_

"Are you sure you're my son?" Harry asked worriedly, the same look of horror twisting his face.

Al burst out laughing. "I never said I didn't like Quidditch! I play Seeker, remember?" he pointed out, and both boys flushed and offered him sheepish grins. "There are more than two teams, y'know!"

"Well, you've got to support the Cannons or the Harpies, don't you?" This was obviously confusing Ron a great deal. "I mean, you're either a loyal Chudley Cannons supporter, like me –" Harry snorted and Ron elbowed him – "or you prefer the Harpies because of Ginny. Lily told us she played for them for over ten years."

Al nodded. "She did, but the Harpies aren't my favourite team, much to Mum's annoyance," he shrugged. "Neither are the Cannons, because quite honestly, they'd still be a better team if half the players were replaced by Blast-Ended Skrewts."

"Oi!" Hugo and Ron protested, but Ron smiled at his son's support of the Cannons.

"Nah, I support Puddlemere," Al revealed. "Since I was about five."

"Puddlemere?" Harry and Ron repeated, before Harry shrugged. "They are doing quite well at the moment. Didn't Wood sign over to them recently?"

Ron nodded. "For the reserve squad, I think." He swallowed the last of his Chocolate Frog and reached for another one.

"Oliver Wood? He retired four years ago – in our time, I mean. His son plays Keeper for them now," Al said. "But Antony Rodrick – he's the star, isn't he, Hugo? Fastest record for catching the Snitch ever, as of March 2020, and right under the other Seeker's nose as well. He's why Puddlemere are top of the league right now. They're set to win the Championship for the fourth time straight, I'm telling you now. Rodrick was a Slytherin, too."

"Yeah, yeah, you harp on your boyfriend," Hugo joked, and Al rudely gave him the finger. "But the Cannons will catch up next year, you mark my words. They've just signed McAllister on."

"Any good?" Ron asked.

"He's getting on a bit, but it's just more experience, isn't it? McAllister was the best Chaser the Tornadoes ever saw," Hugo replied, and Ron looked satisfied at this.

"Who does everyone else support, then?" Harry asked.

"Teddy – whoever's winning at the moment, Victoire – nobody, Dominique – Harpies, Louis – whoever's doing really badly at the moment, he's a bit weird like that, Molly – nobody, Lucy – Tornadoes," Hugo began.

"And Fred – Falmouth Falcons, he likes the motto, Roxanne – Harpies, James – Cannons, Lily – Harpies, and Rose – Puddlemere," Al finished.

"What? My own daughter doesn't support the Cannons?" Ron was outraged.

"I got her converted in the end," Al grinned, and Harry chuckled while Ron just scowled.

"Actually, I think it might be more to do with the fact she fancies Darren Wood," Hugo said.

"And talking of fancying people, what's this I hear about you and Germa Finnegan?" Al raised his eyebrow at Hugo, who was blushing furiously. Ron looked up in interest.

"Finnegan? Any relation of Seamus's?" he asked.

"He's her dad. And Lavender Brown's her mum," Al replied.

Ron's jaw dropped open. "_Seamus _marries _Lavender? _I knew he fancied her, but I didn't think anyone would actually be able to stand living with her!" Hugo and Al shared a look, amusement in their eyes. The irony was stifling. "They named their kid Germa?" Ron wrinkled up his nose in disgust. "Poor girl. Sounds like a disease."

"She is," Al said pleasantly. "I'm not even sure why Hugo worships her that much."

"I don't worship her! I don't even like her that much," Hugo protested, but even Ron could see through that lie.

"You like her enough to snog her face off," Al said nonchalantly. Hugo tried not to blush much more – in all honesty, he couldn't – as he met the onslaught of howling laughter.

"And there I was thinking you were a Hufflepuff through and through!" Harry exclaimed teasingly.

"He is. But he's also gullible," Al said matter-of-factly, earning him a half-hearted punch to the arm.

"Moving on," Hugo put in pointedly, "I haven't seen you around with anyone lately, Al. Of the opposite gender, I mean."

Al frowned obliviously. "I hang around with Rose all the time."

Hugo resisted the urge to facepalm. "I mean as in the me-and-Germa type of relationship."

"I… well – I'm not interested in anyone," Al said bluntly.

"We're starting to think he _plays for the other team_," Hugo said to Harry and Ron matter-of-factly. Ron burst out laughing, while Harry just looked horrified.

"I'm not!" Al was bright red, and furious, trying to splutter out an explanation. "I'm not gay!"

"Oh, really?" Hugo raised his eyebrows at him. "Are you sure about that, or is there something you and Scorpius need to tell Rose?"

Al was glaring at his cousin as fiercely as he could now, and Ron was struggling to breathe he was laughing so much. He had no idea where Hugo had got his sense of humour from, but he was glad it wasn't Hermione – not that he'd ever tell her that.

"I'll have you know I have dated plenty of girls!" Al insisted indignantly. "They're queuing up round the corner wherever I go, in fact!"

"Is that so? Funny, because I can only remember seeing you with one girl in your entire life." Ron wondered how Hugo kept a straight face as he kept this up. "What was she called again? Lauren Sommers?"

"_Louise _Sommers," Al corrected, "and I don't know why you're smiling like that. She was pretty."

"She looked like one of Peter Thomas' potions had blown up in her face and the surgery afterwards had gone horribly wrong," Hugo said. Harry and Ron caught each other's eye, remembering Seamus' disastrous attempts at potion-making and the unfortunate accident that was Eloise Midgen's face, and went off guffawing all over again.

"Alright, I get it! Maybe she wasn't that pretty! Can we please stop talking about my love life?" Al begged.

"What love life?" Hugo asked innocently, looking bewildered.

Al, seeing that there was no way for this to stop except to let the three of them get it all off their chest at his expense, stuffed a Chocolate Frog and sulked in the corner while Hugo, Ron and Harry had a good laugh about his miserable experience with affairs of the heart.

Something caught his eye as he chewed on the wriggling chocolate. The card that had fluttered to the floor when he opened the packet seemed to be calling for his attention. The very old-fashioned, well-to-do wizard in the picture, who looked to be in his twenties, wore fine clothes and a scowl on his handsome face. 'Deangelo Penzance' was written above his various arrogant poses, but still Al had no idea why the card seemed important to him. He'd never even heard of Deangelo Penzance.

And then he noticed what had caught his attention in the first place.

"Guys," he called urgently, scrambling on to his feet with the card in his hand, "look at this."

Hugo, Harry and Ron managed to stop their laughter long enough to turn to him.

"What?" Hugo asked.

"Do any of you know who this is?" Al thrust the card in their faces.

"Deangelo Penzance?" The name seemed to ring a bell somewhere in Ron's head. "That moody old bloke? Yeah, I've got about fifteen of him. Why?"

"Read it. Read his description," Al demanded, and the three boys obeyed, scanning through the text quickly. The young man in the picture made no effort to hide his annoyance, and disappeared out of sight, irritated at being gawped at by so many people.

Harry was the quickest reader. When he'd finished, he looked up at Al with wide eyes, and Hugo and Ron weren't far behind, their jaws hanging open and looking so alike it was almost scary. Al nodded, as if understanding their amazement.

"I think we've found him."

**+.+.+**

"Come on then, dear niece of mine. Spill!" Ginny was perched on the end of the sofa, looking as giddy as a kid in a sweet shop. "I want details."

"Oh, Ginny, give it a rest," Hermione said half-heartedly, smiling apologetically at Rose who looked exasperated but amused. "She's not even talking to Ron again yet! Which I don't blame her for."

"Yes, yes, we all know far too well that my brother is a fabulous git and his idiocy has no competition," Ginny said impatiently, waving this away with her hand. "But we're not here to talk about him. We're here to talk about a certain Mr Malfoy." She raised her eyebrows expectantly at Rose, a smirk playing on her lips.

From her position in between Lily and Victoire, Rose lowered her head and massaged her temples. She'd managed to avoid any kind of interrogation so far, what with the arrival of Dumbledore and McGonagall, but Ginny had finally trapped her. The five girls had claimed the living room for the afternoon, and Ginny had strategically placed herself nearest to the door, blocking Rose's only means of making a break for it. Well, she supposed she could scurry up the fireplace, but she wasn't quite that desperate.

Yet.

Because the look on Ginny's face made her absolutely terrified.

Lifting her head again, Rose plastered on a smile. "Which Mr Malfoy?" she asked, stalling for time.

Ginny hit her niece's arm gently. "You know which one, missy! The ridiculously good-looking one you brought with you on your little excursion to the past!"

Lily spat out the pumpkin juice she was sipping. "Mum!" she squealed, horrified. "In our time, you're over double his age! And he's Rose's boyfriend! And what about Dad –"

"Lils, calm down, it's just a joke," Victoire consoled the sickened fourteen-year-old.

Ginny simply shrugged. "What? You can't deny he's –"

"Enough!" Rose exclaimed, tired of this already. "Can we just get this over with, please?"

Hermione looked sympathetically at her daughter, before sending Ginny a glare. The redhead pretended not to notice. "I'm so happy you're cooperating. First thing's first: Is he a good kisser?"

Even Hermione was interested now.

Rose smirked. They wanted answers; she'd give them answers. "Brilliant," she boasted smugly. 'Amazing, gorgeous, absolutely divine. And hilarious when he kisses me when Dad or Hugo are around."

Lily and Victoire giggled. "Why?" Hermione asked; was this another thing she was going to have to reprimand Ron about in the future?

"Well, they get incredibly protective, you see," Rose said. "And whenever Scorpius kisses me, they make this funny grind noise with their teeth, like wild animals trying not to attack him and tear him to shreds."

The girls burst out laughing.

"I would pay to see that!" Ginny declared.

"It's really funny. The whole room's quiet, and then Scorpius gives Rose a kiss on the cheek and all you can hear is this faint grating noise in the corner of the room," Victoire chuckled.

"Oh, do you remember when Uncle Ron found out about Rose and Scorpius?" Lily asked Victoire, whose face lit up with a grin.

"That memory is going nowhere, Lily," the blonde promised, and Rose groaned.

"What happened?" Ginny prompted, sensing a story.

"Oh, I've already told Dad about it," Victoire said. "Rose and Scorpius were dating for nearly six months before Uncle Ron found out."

"_Six months_?" Ginny gaped at a blushing Rose. "Bloody hell, Rose! I've misjudged you!"

"Merlin," Hermione groaned, "I feel sorry for my future self having to deal with Ron."

"Scorpius and I were at the receiving end of it," Rose grimaced. "Though I suppose it was quite funny…"

"Uncle Ron found out in the most humiliating way possible," Lily said, feeling somewhat sorry for her uncle. It wasn't the best way to find out about your daughter's secret relationship with the son of your lifelong enemy. "It was all over Witch Weekly."

"No," Ginny gasped. "How did they even find out?"

"Merlin knows," Victoire sighed.

"Actually, we think it was James," Lily admitted. "We think he leaked it to the magazine just to see Uncle Ron's reaction."

"That's awful!" Hermione cried, clearly angry. "How dare he?"

"It might not have been him," Rose said quietly. Lily raised her eyebrows at her cousin. Was she defending James for once? "Witch Weekly must have reporters hidden everywhere, ready and waiting with a camera."

"I suppose," Lily shrugged; maybe they'd never know, since James wasn't spilling the beans and the adults didn't believe their theory. "Point is, this meant the whole Wizarding world knew overnight about Rose and Scorpius, and the paparazzi were terrible for weeks afterwards. It got to the point where Uncle Ron and Dad actually went outside and started threatening them. I've never seen Dad so angry."

"Of course, Dad went absolutely berserk, grounded me for my whole life, and I don't think there was a part of him that wasn't bright red," Rose snorted. "He nearly Flooed over to the Malfoys', threatening to take Scorpius to court and murder him very slowly and painfully. In fact he said, and I quote, 'I'm going to snap his ferrety neck and give his severed head as compensation to his parents when I sue them for every penny they own in court!'"

Ginny went wide-eyed. "What do you mean, '_nearly_ Floeed over to the Malfoys'?"

"Aunt Hermione cast a full body-bind curse on him and shoved him under the stairs where he couldn't hurt anyone before he could get to the fireplace," Victoire told her.

"We have to tell Ron about all this!" Ginny spluttered out between her laughter.

"Well, Ginny, I hope you don't have your work cut out with Harry when Lily starts dating as much as I obviously do with Ron," Hermione teased.

Lily went red.

"What?" Ginny asked, suddenly serious again. "You're not dating anyone, are you?"

"I –"

But she was saved by a herd of feet stampeding down the stairs and the living room door being flung open. Ginny regretted sitting closest to the door when it nearly smacked her in the face and she let out a shriek and toppled to the hard wooden floor. A flustered Al barely even noticed her as he held up a Chocolate Frog card triumphantly. This perplexed the four other girls.

"Did you complete your collection at last, Al?" Lily asked uncertainly.

"No," Al said, "but I think we've found who sent us back in time."

* * *

**AN: So, yes, again, I'm incredibly sorry for the awful updating. But the good thing is, summer finally starts in 3 weeks, and I want to get this finished in time for the holidays so I can start something else. So this will definitely be wrapped up within 3 weeks. 4 more chapters to go! **

**Please review, if for no other reason than Hugo's awesomeness in this chapter (and all the time)? Thank you so much to all my reviewers thus far, I love you all. ^^**


	17. The Rita Skeeter of Her Time

**AN: Hola! 2 weeks of school left (for me)! I absolutely can't wait, but we have a story to finish first! I'll bet the title of this chapter confuzzled you, eh? Yeah, well, Rita Skeeter actually has nothing to do with anything, so you're just going to have to read on to find out. Please review!**

* * *

17

The Rita Skeeter of Her Time

They spent all afternoon in the library. Now that they knew what they were searching for, everyone was working much quicker and with more purpose, even Ron, to whom the contents of a library was practically alien.

Ginny had even managed to drag Fred, George and James out of their lair (kicking and screaming) to help them, and Al had found Scorpius easily enough. Deangelo Penzance, on the other hand, turned out to be much harder to find. It was like the grouchy, handsome wizard on the Chocolate Frog card had erased himself from all the history books, even the biggest, thickest, most ancient ones. This, of course, caused Hermione to despair, because if you couldn't find something out in a book where were you going to learn it?

At dinner, Mrs Weasley brought them all sandwiches and didn't even bother to ask why they were all in the library, because she was so astounded by the sight of Fred, George and Ron willingly flicking through the musty old pages of so many books. No one else bothered them – Teddy was working with Remus and Sirius, and everyone else had work to do either for the Order or outside of it.

When darkness started to gather in sections of the library, Hermione slumped forward onto the desk she was reading at, her book still open, and let out a groan. "He's _nowhere _to be found!" she wailed. "Why isn't he here? He's supposed to be one of the most influential wizards of the Founders' era!"

Seeing that Hermione was about to lose it, Ginny desperately looked around for some source of distraction. "Al, what did that Chocolate Frog card say again? Read it out to us."

Fishing the card out of his pocket, Al put his glasses on and read out, "_'Deangelo Penzance, shown above, was one of the most influential wizards of the Founders' era.'_"

"See!" came from the defeated shape they knew to be Hermione. Ron shushed her, making a few people look at him strangely.

"'_He played a crucial role in the growth and improvement of the Wizarding world we know today, creating spells, curses and incantations that make up both the most commonly used and the most obscure spells we use today. Without him and a select few others, the world as we know it may not be as well developed as it is, though he may be better known for his alleged acquaintanceship with the four founders during the time Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was being built, though this theory has never been proved.'_"

Everyone was silent for a moment. And then something clicked in Hermione's brain.

"His alleged acquaintanceship with the four founders! How did we miss that?" Sitting up straight, Hermione looked round at them all, beaming. "This is what we're looking for! Penzance's relationship with Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Hogwarts! They're the key!"

Rose let out a little, "Oh!" Everyone else, however, was still looking around at each other dumbly.

"Er, what's the key?" Hugo asked at last.

"Yes, yes, it makes sense now!" Hermione continued, as if she hadn't even heard him. Harry, Ron, Hugo and Rose rolled their eyes, knowing not to interrupt her when she was like this, while the rest looked frustrated at the lack of information they were getting. "One of the most influential wizards… Founders' era… and they needed… and he was obviously clever, if he… but what made him…"

"Hermione!" Ginny clicked her fingers in front of her friend's face, making her jump and stare at her wide-eyed. "Snap out of it! Come on, tell us what's going on in that head of yours," she coaxed.

"I was getting to it," Hermione huffed. "Rose, do you understand?"

"Yeah, I think I do," she nodded.

"Right. Well, we know that Penzance created all these spells that we still use today, didn't he?" Hermione asked the group at large. They all nodded. "And wizardry wasn't fully developed in his time – there was still so much to learn about magic, which was part of the reason Hogwarts was set up." The bushy-haired girl checked to see if they were all with her. They were. "But Hogwarts was a school. It could teach magic to pupils all it liked, but for a school to be successful there's always got to be more to learn. More spells, more curses, more incantations, which was what Penzance worked on. And teaching all this new magic would therefore develop the rest of the Wizarding world. So who did the four Founders employ to explore all this unknown magic, make sense of it all, and create spells to control it?"

"Penzance," Ron said, looking pleased when Hermione nodded. He grinned, understanding what she was getting at.

"Well… what if Penzance's relationship with the founders wasn't alleged? What if he really did work for them?"

"And what if he specialised in time travel spells?" Rose finished off. Hermione beamed at her.

"Wait… you reckon that Penzance was developing time travel spells for the founders?" Harry asked.

"Well, among other things of course," Hermione replied. "But something happened… something that made him go back on his promise to the founders and place the curse on the thirteen objects that are now scattered around the world, as Dumbledore said yesterday."

"Hang on – how do you know it was Penzance who placed the curse on the objects? It could have been anyone," Ginny pointed out.

"No, it couldn't. All you have to do is look at his picture on the Chocolate Frog card to see that's he's a proud man. Proud and arrogant. He wouldn't give details of his work away to anybody. He probably went to unbelievable lengths to make sure nobody else but him would ever figure out the curse, or figure out how to counter-curse it," Hermione said firmly. She let everybody absorb all this for a moment.

"Yeah, I still don't get it," James said eventually.

Everyone else groaned loudly.

"Right. James. Listen to me," Lily demanded. "Proud and self-centred man – this guy." She pointed to a moody Penzance on the card. "Work for Founders of Hogwarts. Develop spells. Got angry. Angry. _Very_ angry! Cast spell on objects. Revenge. We touch object. We end up here." The redheaded girl finished her lecture, which would have been appropriate for a four-year-old, and looked at her brother expectantly.

It seemed to dawn on him at last.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "I get it!"

"Thank Merlin," Lily muttered, before turning to Hermione. "So what do we do now?"

"Find out more about Deangelo Penzance," Hermione replied simply.

Albus let out a frustrated sigh. "We've been trying to do that for the past four hours, and nothing has turned up! I appreciate that he wanted to keep his most powerful spell a secret, but did he have to make himself so bloody difficult to find?"

"We'll find him. He's got to be here somewhere," Hermione said determinedly, setting her mouth in a grim line and marching off to find more books. Ginny stifled a giggle.

After a glance around the library to make sure Ron was as far away as possible, Scorpius sidled up to Rose in one of the aisles and slid an arm around her waist.

"You know," he whispered in her ear, making her jump, "now wouldn't be a bad time to escape and have some time to ourselves. Nobody's looking… just for fifteen minutes…"

Rose tried to push his arm away. "Not now, Scorpius," she whispered back. "We've got work to do."

"Ten minutes then," Scorpius pleaded, locking his other arm around her and pulling her up to him. "Come on, Rose… we haven't been able to see each other alone since your dad found out…"

Rose flushed red at how close they were, and smiled. "Do we really have to go anywhere?"

Scorpius grinned, pressing his lips to hers. They'd both missed this.

"Ooh, slacking off, are we?"

Scorpius sighed and pulled back, resting his forehead against Rose's. She giggled, and looked over her shoulder to see who'd interrupted them.

"Just being a little rebellious, Ginny," she said cheekily, but stepped out of Scorpius' arms.

"And if Ron came round the corner?" Ginny raised her eyebrows, smirking.

"I'd run like hell," Scorpius admitted. Ginny snorted with laughter.

"Smart boy," she nodded approvingly. "Didn't look like a bad kiss, either – you were right. He's a keeper, that one, Rose." And with that she was gone.

"You were discussing –"

"No," Rose said, cutting her boyfriend off. "Why would we be gossiping about your phenomenal kissing skills? Just how much do you love yourself, Scorpius?" Winking, she slipped out of the aisle and out of sight, leaving Scorpius puzzling over that last question.

About twenty minutes later, Al shouted out, "Hey, I think I've found something!"

The group assembled round the table Al had propped a small and very tattered book open on. "It's a whole passage on Deangelo Penzance. I was just flicking through this book, and here it is."

"Where was the book?" Rose asked.

"Shoved under a chair leg to make the chair balance. No idea why," Al shrugged. "Want me to read it out?"

They all nodded, and Al cleared his throat and read, "_'Deangelo Penzance, one of the most celebrated wizards of his time – or a jealous man with many secrets?'_"

"Oh, Merlin, it sounds like an article by Rita Skeeter," Hermione groaned.

"I don't know, I don't think this is a newspaper article. Not from our time, at least." Al said, before continuing. "'_The famous spell developer left behind a diary, which has just now been discovered by investigators at his old home in Scotland.'_"

"You're joking? It was as simple as a diary?" Lily asked.

"Well, that diary is probably long gone by now," Rose said. "Who knows how old this article is?"

"No idea, but I'm betting the writer of it was one of Skeeter's ancestors," Ron said bitterly, and Harry and Hermione shuddered. Memories of Skeeter's articles last year during the course of the Triwizard Tournament were still fresh in their mind.

"'_In this exciting book, Penzance reveals all there must be to know about his line of work, and even goes into detail about his controversial affair with none other than Helena Ravenclaw, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw herself!"_

The library was so silent you could have heard a pin drop.

"Bloody hell," Hugo breathed.

When everybody else had closed their jaws, Ron said, "Couldn't agree more."

"Helena Ravenclaw is the Grey Lady, isn't she?" Rose asked for confirmation.

Everyone else looked at her in surprise. "She is?" Harry frowned.

"I think so. I must have read it somewhere," Rose shrugged. "But I never would have guessed… wow."

"Definitely," Ginny sighed. "Anybody else see a love story forming here? Carry on, Al."

"'_According to Penzance, their steamy affair had been carrying on for over five years behind everyone's backs. And why the need to keep it a secret, you ask? Well, as if the facts that Penzance was ten years older than little Helena, and he worked for the Founders during the time Hogwarts was being built – another secret uncovered by the diary – weren't enough, Helena also had another admirer, otherwise known as the Bloody Baron, famous Slytherin ghost of Hogwarts.'_"

"Forbidden love," Lily and Ginny sighed dreamily; they were clearly getting quite into this.

"Well, that's a bit of a messed up love triangle," James remarked. "I don't blame them for keeping their relationship a secret. Even I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of the Bloody Baron."

"And that's why you send Peeves to get in trouble with him for you?" Lily asked.

"Exactly," James smiled, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"'_Now, anyone who's met this ghost will know that it's a bad idea to upset him. And of course, stealing the girl from under his nose wasn't the best way to avoid doing that. But one of the most widely known facts about Penzance is that he was impatient. And if the writing in his diary is telling the truth, we have every reason to believe that he actually asked Helena at last to –'_"

"Marry him!" Lily exclaimed hopefully at the same time Ginny cried, "Run away with him!" Both girls blushed when everybody stared at them.

"What? I think it's very romantic, actually, the whole secret love affair between them," Lily defended herself, while Ginny nodded.

"'_finally reveal their relationship to everybody!'_"

"Ooh. Not such a good idea," James said.

"Look, can I just finish reading this without everybody butting in?" Al pleaded. "Thank you."

'_And what did Helena say? Well, she said no, of course! Let's face it – everyone loves an affair much more than a standard relationship, even Little Miss Ravenclaw herself.'_

"Or she could just have been scared of the Bloody Baron and her mother's reaction," Rose pointed out dryly. Seeing Al's pointed look, she ducked her head and proceeded to listen to him finish.

"'_This outraged Penzance – we can see his point of view, as well! Who wouldn't be offended by that? In his rage, he refused to work for the Four Founders anymore, and instead of giving his latest time travel spell to them to teach the pupils of Hogwarts, he enhanced it and made it even more powerful before casting it on thirteen objects and scattering them around the world. Sound familiar? That's because this is the much speculated about Curse of the Thirteen, confirmed in Deangelo Penzance's very own diary! What did he hope this would achieve? Perhaps we'll never know, but watch out for an all new production making its debut next year – a dramatised version of Penzance and Helena's tale, produced by the highly accredited Abra Kedabra! theatre company.'_"

Al closed the book with a snap. "And that's it," he concluded.

"Well, it's obvious all that was just a newspaper article from Merlin knows how long ago, so how do we know one word of it is accurate?" Hermione said, exasperated.

"It's the only thing we've got to go on," Rose shrugged. "So I say we go on it. Anyway, it sounds pretty trustworthy, even if the author was the Rita Skeeter of her time."

"But why would creating the Curse of the Thirteen be a good revenge plan?" Al asked. "I still don't get it."

"Because he knew that if anybody touched one of those objects, they could be transported to any point of time. And of course, if you change one little thing in time travel it can disrupt the whole future. When you touched that jewellery box and necklace, if you had ended up anywhere else, you might not have known what had happened and then who knows what you'd have done? You-Know-Who could even use you to his advantage if he received news of you, and the future you come from, the future free of him, would almost certainly no longer exist," Hermione said.

"So Penzance wanted to wreak havoc in the Wizarding world, all because he couldn't get what he wanted, which was to be with Helena officially?" Ginny questioned, and Hermione nodded.

"Wow. That's one jealous bloke," James whistled.

Lily raised her eyebrows. "No kidding," she said dryly.

"Alright. So now we know why Penzance cast the curse, all we need to do now is find the counter curse, set it up, and go back home to our own time before we have a chance to actually mess up our own future," Hugo said lightly. "Should be a piece of cake."


End file.
